NatWest Group’s defence sector Environmental, Social and Ethical Risk (ESE) Policy treats companies differently according to where they are based and which nuclear weapons programme they are involved with.[1] The policy states:
- The bank does “not support customers and/or transactions involved in prohibited activities”. Prohibited activities include the “financing of companies involved in the manufacture, sale, trade, servicing or stockpiling of Nuclear Weapons in jurisdictions outside NATO countries and that are not officially involved in and accredited to the national nuclear weapons programmes of UK, US or France”.
- Companies involved in restricted activities “undergo enhanced due diligence including review by a reputational risk committee or approver and re-evaluation every one or two years”. Restricted activities include the “financing of companies involved in the manufacture, sale, trade, servicing or stockpiling of Nuclear Weapons and the manufacture or sale of Bespoke Components in NATO countries and are officially involved in and accredited to the national nuclear weapons programmes of only UK, US or France”.
This policy is not comprehensive (see section 8.1) because:
- companies that are involved in “restricted” nuclear weapons activities, such as BAE Systems and Lockheed Martin, are not automatically excluded from NatWest Group investment;
- the policy only covers NatWest Group’s lending and investment banking operations, not its asset management activities, meaning that the bank can invest in companies involved in “prohibited” activities on behalf of third parties;
- the policy does not exclude entire companies – the bank only restricts financing of certain nuclear weapons-related activities.[2]
[1] https://www.natwestgroup.com/content/dam/natwestgroup_com/natwestgroup/pdf/defence-sector.pdf.
[2] M Beenes, Beyond the Bomb: Global Exclusion of Nuclear Weapons Producers (PAX, 2019): https://www.paxforpeace.nl/publications/all-publications/beyond-the-bomb.
Don't Bank on the Bomb Scotland 