Banks that facilitate business in the defence and border control sector have increased their investments in the military-industrial complex.

This is the conclusion of a report published in March by the Delàs Centre for Peace Studies as a result of the Banca Armada campaign, which aims to inform and raise awareness in society so that it forces financial institutions to cut all ties with the defence and security industries.

It is an initiative financed by Barcelona City Council within the framework of the project “From armed banking to ethical banking, disarmament starts here”, which, in addition to the Delàs Centre, has involved the participation of several organisations working in the field of demilitarisation, ethical financing and the culture of peace, such as the Fundación de Finanzas Éticas, Coop57, and the Alternativa Antimilitarista Moc.

Specifically, the report looks at the actors facilitating the militarisation of countries around the Mediterranean and border control, which campaigners describe as ‘border warfare’. At the same time, it criticises the European Union for making its borders increasingly impenetrable to the flood of migrants, victimising them and violating their rights.

All the big banks are involved

In the international ranking of armed banking, practically no one is spared, including large institutional investors, financial institutions and insurance companies, most of them based in the United States. As for the European Union, entities such as Deutsche Bank, BNP Paribas Crédit Agricole and Barclays Bank stand out.

In this list we also find Banco Santander and BBVA with 4,985 and 4,752 million dollars, respectively, followed by the Sociedad Estatal de Participaciones Industriales (SEPI), a public entity, with 4,129 million, the only entities from the Spanish state that are in this world ranking.

With regard to the Valencian Community, banking entities such as the Bankia-CaixaBank group and Banco Sabadell stand out, with 182 and 95 million respectively. Specifically, between credits and loans, CaixaBank has invested up to 110 million euros in Boeing and Banco Sabadell 66 million in Airbus. Despite the fact that these aerospace companies only have a part of their turnover in the defence sector, especially Airbus with 82% dedicated to commercial aviation and 18% to the defence industry, the report also includes its subsidiaries and shareholdings in entities that do have a direct relationship with the arms industry.

Perhaps the most surprising aspect of this report is the presence of credit cooperatives such as Caixa d’Enginyers and Caja Rural, since they have investments in companies that contribute to border control through the manufacture of radars or technological consultancy for the Schengen border area. Faced with a totally globalised industrial sector, which monopolises all kinds of companies not only in the aerospace sector but also in other technological fields, it seems practically mission impossible to dissociate banking from the defence industry, two highly politicised sectors.

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