Each year, the nine nuclear-armed nations spend a combined total of more than US$100 billion on their nuclear forces – assembling new warheads, modernizing old ones, and building ballistic missiles, bombers and submarines to launch them. Much of this work is being carried out by private companies.
By lending money to nuclear weapons companies, and purchasing their shares and bonds, banks and other financial institutions are indirectly facilitating the build-up and modernization of nuclear forces, thereby heightening the risk that one day these ultimate weapons of terror will be used again – with catastrophic humanitarian and environmental consequences. Divestment from nuclear weapons companies is an effective way for the corporate world to advance the goal of nuclear abolition.
The report lists financial institutions that have been substantively involved in financing the selected nuclear weapons producers by means of share issues, shareholdings, bond issues, bondholdings and bank loans since 2008. More than half are based in the United States, and one-third in Europe. The rest are primarily from Asia (including Australia) and the Middle East. Most have significant investments in one or two of the nuclear weapons companies, while some invest in several. Among the banks and other financial institutions most heavily involved are Bank of America, BlackRock and JP Morgan Chase in the United States; BNP Paribas in France; Deutsche Bank in Germany; and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial in Japan.
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