Don't Bank on the Bomb: Beyond the bomb; Global exclusion of nuclear weapon producers

Written on 21 October 2019.

The last part of the report from Don't Bank to the Bomb, Beyound the bomb; Global exclusion of nuclear weapon producers, has already been published. The publication includes its updated Hall of Fame, which increases in 14 entities the number of free entities of nuclear funding. The new document shows that the number of financial institutions that adopt and reinforce their policies to avoid any financial participation in nuclear-weapon-producing companies is growing rapidly.

Altogether, the 36 institutions of the Hall of Fame maintain at least 1600 million euros in assets outside the nuclear weapons industry. Special mention must be made to the ethical financing entities present in our closest environment that appear, FIARE Banca Etica and Triodos Bank. The report also mentions the bad praxis of BBVA that despite having codes of investment in defense industry also found that it had several investments in companies that have identified nuclear weapons.

You can download the original report in English here.

The latest Don’t Bank on the Bomb report

Written on 25 July 2019.

Shorting our securityFinancing the companies that make nuclear weapons: a global report on the financing of nuclear weapons producers.

The new report from the "Do not Bank on the Bomb" series titled "Shorting our securityFinancing the companies that make nuclear weapons" examines investments made in companies that are involved in the nuclear weapons industry. It should be noted that the new research led by PAX, which has as its main author Susi Snyder and has the collaboration of Profundo a Dutch consultant for economic research that analyzes chains of commodities, financial institutions and social enterprises, reveals that the number of entities financing continues to decline, however, the amount of money invested has increased. The balance is positive, since almost a hundred financial institutions have ended their relationship with the nuclear weapons industry since the end of 2017. At the same time, other financial institutions have begun to finance companies that produce key components for nuclear weapons. Almost a third of all the financial institutions listed in the previous update of this investigation no longer has any investment at all, which shows that there are options in the market to allow any investor to detach from this type of investments quickly.

The total figure that unveils the report is $ 748 billion invested in the world's foremost leading nuclear weapons producers for 325 financial institutions between January 2017 and January 2019. More than half of all investments were made by ten institutions Financial: Vanguard, BlackRock, Capital Group, State Street, Verisight (now known as Newport Group), T. Rowe Price, Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo, and Citigroup.

 In millions of dollars, banks and public and private financial institutions of the Spanish State have invested the following amounts during this period from 2017-2018. Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA) 4,280, State Capital of Industrial Participation 3,219, Santander 2,193.6, Banco de Sabadell 127, Magallanes Spain 16.7, Fundación Bancaria Ibercaja 10.8. You can download the original report in English here.

ICAN and PAX report “Producing mass destruction: Private companies and the nuclear weapons industry”

Written on 02 May 2019.

PAX and the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) have co-published a report showing extensive involvement of companies such as Lockheed Martin in the production of nuclear weapons.

Private companies are being paid at least $116 billion to build nuclear weapons, according to the report.

“Producing mass destruction: Private companies and the nuclear weapons industry” is part of the Don’t Bank on the Bomb project. It shows that nuclear armed governments have awarded contracts to companies including Huntington Ingalls Industries, Lockheed Martin, Honeywell International, General Dynamics and Jacobs Engineering to build nuclear weapons. These companies seek to profit from the production of weapons of mass destruction.

Dowload here the full report in English.

Report "Worldwide investements in cluster munitions: A shared responsability" 2018

Written on 30 November 2018.

Next Monday, December 3rd, will mark 10 years since the Convention on Cluster Munitions was held in Oslo, Norway. The anniversary coincides with the publication of the annual report "Worldwide investment in cluster munitions: A shared responsibility 2018", published by the international organization PAX, member of the international campaign Stop Explosive Investments that collaborates the Banca Armada campaign.

The report shows that the global ban on cluster munitions is having an extraordinary impact: Compared to the 2017 report, the global level of financial investment in cluster munitions dropped from US$ 31 billion to $9 billion - a reduction of 344 per cent, the report finds.

In addition to the decrease of investments in cluster munitions producers, the report also shows a marked increase in the number of financial institutions explicitly excluding cluster munitions producers from investment. In the 2018 report a total of 110 financial institutions were identified as explicitly excluding investments in cluster munitions, up from 84 in the 2017 report. The report notes a growing trend among investors to put in place clear divestment policies.

Download full report here.