Bank investments in nuclear weapons

Corporate investments in nuclear weapons

The report found that 329 financial institutions had invested $525 billion in the top 20 nuclear weapons producers such as BAE, Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Serco between January 2014 and October 2017.

The financing provided by the institutions could be loans, investment banking or ownership of more than 0.5% of the shares of at least one of the producing companies.

Hall of Fame

22 institutions were listed in the Hall of Fame for having a policy that excluded all types of investments in nuclear weapons companies (withdrawing past investments and avoiding future investments).

Of all the banks covered in these guides, only Triodos and The Co-operative Bank appeared in the Hall of Fame.

In our guides

The financial institutions listed as runners-up and those in the Hall of Shame receive a full mark in the Arms & Military Supply column on the score tables in our product guides.

Runners-up

41 financial institutions were listed as ‘runners-up’ because they have publicly available policies that exclude nuclear weapon producers from their investments, but their policies contain loopholes that still allow for some investments. They have all expressed a shared understanding that involvement in nuclear weapons production is at least controversial. However, the loopholes have allowed some sizeable investments. Indeed, Barclays is one of the biggest investors in Europe.

The runners-up include five institutions in our finance guides:

(Ranked by total finance made available to nuclear weapons companies)

Hall of Shame

288 institutions were listed by PAX in the Hall of Shame for not having any policies prohibiting investments in nuclear weapons.

24 of these institutions were covered in these guides:

(Ranked by total finance made available to nuclear weapons companies)

Three of the 20 nuclear weapons producing companies

Serco (UK) is part of the joint venture AWE-ML, which runs the UK Atomic Weapons Establishment which is responsible for manufacturing and maintaining Trident nuclear warheads for the UK arsenal, as well as developing the new nuclear warhead, Mark4A.

BAE Systems (UK) is involved in the nuclear weapons programmes of France, the UK and the US. It produces key components for Trident II (D5) missiles for the US and UK nuclear arsenals. It also produces US Minuteman III Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) systems. BAE Systems is also part of the MBDA joint venture and provides nuclear armed air-to-surface missiles for France.

Boeing (USA) is contracted to help keep the Minuteman III nuclear intercontinental ballistic missiles operational in the US nuclear arsenal until 2030. Boeing will also be producing the new Ground Based Strategic Deterrent system for the US, designed to replace the Minuteman III system. Boeing is also producing the guided tail kit for the new B61-12 US nuclear gravity bomb. In addition, Boeing also has contracts for key components for US and UK Trident II (D5) nuclear weapons.