These financial institutions, by implementing comprehensive policies against type of investment in any nuclear weapons associated companies, are prepared for the forthcoming nuclear weapons prohibition.
The 2016 Hall of Fame includes the following institutions:
ASN Bank, The Netherlands
ASR, The Netherlands
Australian Ethical, Australia
Banca Etica, Italy
The Co-operative Bank, United Kingdom
DNB, Norway
Menzis, The Netherlands
NIBC, The Netherlands
Pensioenfonds Horeca & Catering, The Netherlands
Philips Pension Fund, The Netherlands
PFA, Denmark
PNO Media, The Netherlands
SNS Bank N.V., The Netherlands
Spoorwegpensioenfonds, The Netherlands
Stichting Pensioenfonds Openbaar Vervoer (SPOV), The Netherlands
Storebrand Group, Norway
Swedish Pension Fund AP7, Sweden
Triodos Bank, The Netherlands
The total number of financial institutions in the Hall of Fame went from 13 in the 2015 report to 18 in the 2016 update.
This year we welcome one completely new financial institutions into the Hall of Fame.
- Australian Ethical
We also welcome three institutions that have strengthened the implementation of their polices by divesting from nuclear weapon producing companies and thereby moving from the Runners-up to the Hall of Fame:
- DNB (Norway)
- Spoorwegpensioenfonds (The Netherlands)
- Stichting Pensioenfonds Openbaar Vervoer (SPOV) (The Netherlands)
And we congratulate NIBC (The Netherlands) for their new policy which also movest them up to the Hall of Fame.
We hope these new entries together with the existing Hall of Fame institutions will be inspirational examples to many more financial institutions.
Criteria
These financial institutions all have publicly available policies – or summaries thereof – excluding investments in nuclear weapons producing companies. They actively withdraw from past investments and avoid future investments and their exclusion policies have an ‘all-in’ comprehensive scope applied at the highest (group) level.
Since the banking group usually sets the investment policy and since the group directly or indirectly supervises its subsidiaries, we research the group policy only.
Hall of Fame qualifying policies:
Exclude all nuclear weapon associated companies
The policy excludes:
- whole companies, not only nuclear weapons related projects
- companies associated with nuclear weapons including through joint ventures
- companies regardless of their country of origin
- companies regardless their country of operation
Exclude all nuclear weapon associated activities
The policy excludes companies associated with:
- development, testing, production, maintenance or trade of nuclear weapons related technology, parts, products or services.
- delivery systems such as missiles, that are specifically developed for nuclear tasks. This includes technology that is designed for ‘dual use’ (military and civilian) but excludes technology that is not designed for, but can be used in nuclear warfare. It does not include delivery platforms such as bombers and submarines.
Apply to all the institution’s products and services
The institution applies the policy:
- for the entire Group, including subsidiaries
- in all markets
- to all asset management classes – passive and active, internal and external.
- to all existing and future investments.
The financial institutions in this chapter have not engaged in any financial relationships with any of the nuclear weapon associated companies listed in this report. The policies of over 80 financial institutions were analysed for this report. We conclude that 18 institutions deserve a place in the Hall of Fame. Financial institutions whose nuclear weapons policy does not meet all of the above criteria are included in the “Runners-Up” chapter.
Methodology
To identify financial institutions with a policy on nuclear weapons, we research a variety of sources: NGO reports, screening-agency information, financial institution reports and websites, information from campaigners and other public sources. For practical reasons, the scope of this report is limited to those financial institutions that have an investment policy or a summary of that policy in English. The list of institutions in the Hall of Fame is not exhaustive. We welcome additions from those able to provide them.
For the purposes of this report, nuclear weapon producers are defined as companies that produce key components to test, develop, maintain, modernise and deploy nuclear weapons. There are countless companies involved in the broad nuclear weapons complex, and this report only details those most heavily involved in the production and maintenance of nuclear warheads and their delivery systems (such as missiles and launch tubes). The report does not include companies involved in the production of delivery platforms (such as nuclear capable bombers and submarines).
In advance of this report, all financial institutions not previously reported on were asked to fill in a standardised questionnaire with detailed questions on the scope and content of their policies, this research was conducted between April and August 2016. Financial institutions that did not respond are not included. Of the financial institutions listed in the Hall of Fame, several of use exclusion lists, and we have included the public ones in the relevant profiles. Some other financial institutions in the Hall of Fame work with an inclusion list rather than an exclusion list, while others do not make their lists public.
Each financial institution profile in the Hall of Fame includes a brief description of the institution, a summary of key policy elements, and the exclusion list if applicable. We researched investments in companies on our producers list for each of the financial institutions listed in the Hall of Fame. None of the financial institutions listed in the Hall of Fame invest in any of the 27 identified nuclear weapon producers.