Prevent banks from financing the arms trade

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Prevent banks from financing the arms trade

Send an email to Vince Cable, UK Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise, & Regulatory Reform, to prevent banks from financing the arms trade.

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Dear Vince Cable,

The arms trade provides the destructive hardware used in conflicts across the world. It undermines development, contributing to the poverty and suffering of millions.

A report by War on Want, 'Banking on Bloodshed', has exposed for the first time the extent to which the five main British high street banks are funding this violent trade.

Banks that claim to support sustainable development and human rights are using customer money to finance the sale of arms, including cluster munitions and depleted uranium, which kill and maim innocent civilians. As a voluntary approach to good practice, CSR cannot make companies accountable for their actions.

As a result of the financial crisis there are now unprecedented calls for regulation of the banking sector. It is understood that the light touch of deregulation has been a major cause of the current financial crisis. Calls have focused on the social function of banks as providers of finance to small business and mortgages. By the same token there should be regulation of bank lending and investment in respect of other social criteria.

As an urgent priority the government must ensure that all banks are made to publish the full details of their loans, holdings and other banking services to the arms trade. The government must also introduce regulation which prevents high street banks from supporting the arms trade whether through loans, investments or other banking services.

Yours sincerely

Tags: banking | campaigns | corporations & conflict