NEW REPORT CALLS OUT BANKS THAT MAKE NUCLEAR WEAPONS INVESTMENTS

NEW REPORT CALLS OUT BANKS THAT MAKE NUCLEAR WEAPONS INVESTMENTS https://futureoflife.org/2019/06/06/new-report-calls-out-banks-that-make-nuclear-weapons-investments/ By Kirsten Gronlund

Despite the 2017 international Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, weapons companies continue to build them. Facilitating this production is a massive amount of investment capital contributed by private financial institutions.

Don’t Bank on the Bomb’s new report, Shorting our security: Financing the companies that make nuclear weapons, identifies which banks are investing in nuclear weapons producers, and how much they’re investing. The aim of the report is to end the production of nuclear weapons by increasing the stigma associated with these investments.

Many nuclear weapons producers engage in commercial activity other than weapons production, and investors have no way of ensuring how their investments will be used. Thus, “the report shows investments in those nuclear weapon producers at the group level, regardless of the other activities of the company or the percentage of turnover it derives from nuclear weapons-related activities.”

The report finds that over 748 billion USD was invested in the top 18 nuclear weapons companies between January 2017 and January 2019. Investments in these companies have grown by 42% compared to Don’t Bank on the Bomb’s previous analysis, up from 325 billion USD. This is due in large part to a 40% increase in Boeing’s share prices; since the conclusion of this analysis, the Boeing 737Max airplane crash has negatively affected the company.

The 748 billion USD represents investments by 325 financial institutions, headquartered in 28 countries. In the previous analysis, only 25 countries hosted institutions with investments in nuclear weapons producers. Since that analysis, 94 institutions representing at least 55,507 million USD in investments ended their contributions. However, this loss is more than offset by the 90 institutions that have since made first-time investments totaling 107,821 million USD. Over half the total investment capital came from just the top 10 investors.

Who is investing the most?

The top 10 investors are all US companies. Their total investments, in millions USD, are listed below.

NAME	2019 REPORT	2018 REPORT	CHANGE	% CHANGE
Vanguard	66,048	35,267	30,781	87%
BlackRock	61,200	38,381	22,819	59%
Capital Group	59,096	36,739	22,357	61%
State Street	52,835	33,370	19,465	58%
Verisight (now known as Newport Group, formerly Evercore)	31,509	13,712	31,509	130%
T. Rowe Price	31,234	8,896	22,228	251%
Bank of America	29,033	25,851	3,182	12%
JPMorgan Chase	23,962	29,679	-5,717	-19%
Wells Fargo	20,261	13,497	6,764	50%
Citigroup	17,017	16,489	528	3%

Search here to find out if your bank is investing in nuclear weapons.

Who stopped investing?

Below are the ten largest investors that no longer have investments in the top 18 weapons producers.

NAME	COUNTRY	MILLIONS USD
Children’s Investment Fund Management	UK	1,469
Marathon Asset Management	Canada	635
William Blair & Company	USA	474
Mackie Research Financial	USA	223
Discovery Capital Management	USA	174
ABP	Netherlands	104
Blue Harbour Group	USA	97
Manning & Napier	UK	82
Teacher Retirement System of Texas	USA	73
Glenmede	USA	70

Who started investing?

Below are the ten new investors with the highest investments.

NAME	COUNTRY	MILLIONS USD
Unum Group	USA	31,508.7
WBC Holdings	USA	20,260.8
SMBC Group	Japan	8,201.5
Dassault Family	France	6,772.5
Janus Henderson	UK	6,104.9
United Overseas Bank	Singapore	4,314.4
AXA Equitable	USA	3,733.7
Point72 Asset Management	USA	3,546.3
Strategic Incoe Management	USA	2,704.8
Development Bank of Japan	Japan	1,973.0

Where is the money going?

Total investments in each company are listed in millions USD.

NAME	2019 REPORT	2018 REPORT	CHANGE	% CHANGE
Aecom	19,048	20,101	-1,054	-5%
Aerojet Rocketdyne	4,791	2,685	2,107	78%
Airbus	44,455	30,691	13,764	45%
BAE Systems	22,814	25,986	-3,172	-12%
Bechtel	4,000	7,000	-3,000	-43%
Boeing	254,296	87,010	167,286	192%
BWX Technologies	8,987	5,865	3,122	53%
Fluor	17,465	18,276	-812	-4%
General Dynamics	72,630	45,437	27,193	60%
Honeywell	78,397	86,806	-8,408	-10%
Huntington Ingalls Industries	12,568	9,915	2,653	27%
Jacobs Engineering (includes CH2M Hill)	15,563	11,616	3,947	34%
Larsen & Toubro	14,855	15,905	-1,050	-7%
Lockheed Martin	77,543	79,118	-1575	-2%
Northrop Grumman (includes Orbital ATK)	53,023	52,507	516	1%
Safran	24,661	18,105	6,556	36%
Serco	2,265	3,653	-1,389	-38%
Thales	21,080	5,269	15,811	300%
GRAND TOTAL	748,440	525,945	222,495	42%