Banks Fund Cluster Munitions Production
A report by War on Want has uncovered the role of British banks, including Barclays, HSBC, Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), Halifax Bank of Scotland (HBOS) and Lloyds TSB, in the arms trade.
The report found that all these banks, except HBOS, had loaned money to companies producing cluster munitions, including GenCorp, Lockheed Martin, Textron, Raytheon and Thales. Barclays — by far the largest investor in the arms trade — and HSBC had investments in such firms.
Among British banks, only the Cooperative Bank was free from association with the arms trade. Indeed the Coop Bank has funded and supported the campaigns to against landmines, cluster munitions and other unexploded ordnance.
To read the entire War on Want report, click here.
Back in 2007, Netwerk Vlaanderen, a Belgian NGO promoting socially responsible use of money, found 68 banks worldwide that had provided a total of $ 12.6 billion in three years to cluster munitions producers. Major participating banks included Bank of America, Bank of New York, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of Nova Scotia, Citigroup and Deutsche Bank. To read this report, click here.
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~ by Matthew Bolton on 12 February 2009.
Posted in UK
Tags: arms trade, Bank of America, Bank of New York, Bank of Nova Scotia, Banking on Bloodshed, Banks, Barclays, Citigroup, cluster munitions, Cooperative Bank, Deutsche Bank, ethical investing, GenCorp, Halifax Bank of Scotland, HBOS, HSBC, JPMorgan Chase, landmines, Lloyds TSB, Lockheed Martin, Netwerk Vlaanderen, Raytheon, RBS, Royal Bank of Scotland, Scotiabank, socially responsible investing, Textron, Thales, UXO, War on Want
