On 6 March the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private sector arm of the World Bank, made public its new policy and performance standards on social and environmental sustainability, and disclosure policy. Despite a number of changes made in the last round of revisions in response to comments from a variety of stakeholders, the new system is based on discretion and flexibility, rather than increased transparency, accountability and oversight. Comprehensive analysis on each performance standard submitted to the IFC by civil society was often ignored or only partially incorporated.