In the only report of its kind, “Don’t Bank on the Bomb” details how 298 private and public financial institutions continue to invest almost US$ 314 billion into 27 companies involved in the production, maintenance and modernization of nuclear weapons.
These 298 leading financial investors and loan providers in the “Hall of Shame” include: State Street, Capital Group of Companies, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Blackrock (US); Barclays Bank and the Royal Bank of Scotland (UK); BNP Paribas (France); Deutsche Bank (Germany); Mitsubishi UFJ Financial and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking (Japan), Life Insurance Corporation (India); and UBS and Credit Suisse (Switzerland).
As well as a “Hall of Shame”, for the first time, this 300 page report also includes examples of good company and national practice. In the “Hall of Fame” and “Runners-up” category, 32 financial institutions are credited for having policies intended to limit their investment in nuclear weapon producers.
Unlike Biological or Chemical weapons, nuclear weapons are the only weapon of mass destruction not yet banned by international law, despite global recognition that they kill indiscriminately and belong to the cold war era. On June 19, of this year in Berlin, US President Obama underlined the risk: “… so long as nuclear weapons exist, we are not truly safe”.
Recent chemical weapon attacks in Syria underline the increasing risk of proliferation and use of weapons of mass destruction by rogue states and terrorist groups, which is why more and more countries and concerned citizens believe the time has come to ban nuclear weapons once and for all.
With this report, PAX, together with partners in the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), aim to increase transparency into financial investments and responsibilities of the private sector into a weapon which is a threat to humanity, and like chemical and biological weapons, should be banned once and for all.