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In this section, we present data related to the financing of arms companies between 2011 and 2017 by financial entities identified as “armed bank” (banca armada), among which are the major banks, large insurance companies, asset management companies, sovereign wealth funds, some pensions funds and public institutions from all over the world.

The concept of Banca Armada refers to all financial entities whose money is financing the arms industry, from its starting stage of development and research to its final stage and forthcoming transportation. Their participation in the arms business comes through one or more types of financing, which are broken down in this database into 3 categories: underwriting of bond & share issuances; the granting of credit to arms companies; the ownership or management of investment funds, stocks and bonds in arms companies.

Methods

This database has been elaborated mainly based on report Banks investements in weapons of Delàs Center in which we pay especial attention to data about Spanish arms companies and financial entities operating in Spain. Yet with the latest update, we have also included some major financial entities that perform at international level, including financial entities with great investments in nuclear arms companies between January 2013 and October 2016 widely reported in the Don’t bank on the bomb’s report (2016) as well as the one which are financing cluster munition companies from the report Worldwide investments in Cluster munitions, a shared responsibility (2017), both published by PAX NL. In the framework of update on November, 2018, we have included the more recent data available on Spanish financial institutions and foreign financial institutions operating in Spain that have fund nuclear weapon companies between January 2014 and October 2017, as revealed by the latest report Don’t bank on the bomb (2018)

Regarding nuclear weapons producers, Don’t bank on the bomb only details those most heavily involved in the production and maintenance of nuclear warheads and their delivery systems between January 2013 and October 2016. It also includes only share and bound holdings larger than 0.5% of the total number of outstanding shares. However, the list does not include companies involved in the production of delivery platforms such as nuclear capable bombers and submarines nor it includes investments made by governments, universities or churches.

Whereas in the case of Cluster Munitions' report, PAX selected only those companies producing cluster munition that provide sufficient evidence that the company has produced key components or whole cluster munitions or explosive sub munitions in the time span extending from 30 May 2008 to 10 February 2017, and that the company has not stated publicly that it will end its involvement in the coming 12 months.

Thus, companies with no financial links or those whose evidence was considered as insufficient were also not included in the report neither in our database. This also applies for financial entities investing in cluster munition, where only 0.1% floor limit for Asian companies and 1% limit for US companies were chosen, else the list would had been extremely extensive.

Beside, in the framework of this latest update in 2018, we have added data from SOMO (Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations) – as a result of the access to Thomson Reuters Eikon’s database on 2018 July, 12th, 17th and 18th about the funding of 29 weapon companies, all of them included in the SIPRI Top 100 warms‑producing and military services companies 2017 (except from Indra): ASELSAN, Austal, CAE, Cobham, DCNS, Elbit Systems, Embraer, Fincantieri, Indostán, Aeronautics, Indra, Israel Aerospace Industries, Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Kongsberg Gruppen, Korea Aerospace Industries, L-3 Technologies, LIG Nex1, Airbus, BAE Systems, Leonardo, Mistubishi Heavy Industries, Rheinmetall AG, Rolls-Royce, Saab, ST Engineering, ThyssenKrupp, United Aircraft, United Shipbuilding Corp and United Technologies. Among those 29, 15 were not previously reported in the database, this one thereby counts now on data about new arms companies from countries such as Israel, Japan, South Korea, Turkey, Singapore, Sweden and Brazil.

How to use the Database

With the easier use of the database in mind, the users can select the interface within three main selections, which focus on financial entities (in red), countries and arms companies (in blue). With the term “country”, we pretend to point out the headquarters of the financial institutions, in other words, they can either operate in other countries thus it is their “country of reference”.

In all of three selections, the users can visualize the global panorama and ranking by country and/or financial entity related to the financing of the arms industry during the period of 2011-2017. Additionally, the typology of financing in three categories, namely underwriting of bonds & share issuances, granting of credit and investment funds, shareholdings and bondholding, is also displayed.

All the monetary data has been calculated in euros or US dollar taking into consideration the exchange rate of the day the financial operation, i.e the closing date (loan); issue date (underwriting issuance), filing date (shareholding and bondholding), which has been provided by the European Central Bank. In cases when the exact date of a certain financial movement is done on a legal holiday, the exchange rate of the closest previous working day had been used instead.

It is possible to download the data tables in format .CSV and .HTML as well as all the charts in .JPEG, clicking on the following icon .

Definitions

As for what an arms industry is, we consider that any kind of business which makes an economic action towards the production of parts or complete military goods, research and development of technology directed to the military/marine/air forces or private security companies, providers of engineering services to the military/marine/air forces or private security companies, among other services related. The main goal of this business is to prepare for war.

SIPRI defines military goods and services as those that are designed specifically for military purposes and the technologies related to such goods and services. Military goods are military-specific equipment and do not include general-purpose goods, such as oil, electricity, office computers, uniforms and boots.

This definition can be complemented with the ones offered by the Cluster Munition Coalition regarding cluster bombs and our Diccionario de la Guerra, la paz y el desarme’s definition of nuclear weapons.

In one hand, cluster bomb or cluster munition is a weapon containing multiple explosive sub-munitions, which are launched from aircraft or shot from the ground. The area of impact covers up to the size of several football fields and anyone within it is likely to be killed or to suffer grave injuries.

Whereas nuclear weapon is the term associated with a device which produces an enormous release of energy originated from a nuclear reaction, usually fission instead of fusion. Nuclear weapons are considered a type of non-conventional weapon, its effects are devastation to all kind of life, plus they produce nuclear waste after detonation with high radiation that might last hundreds of years to disappear.

In this database, we have purposely distinguished twelve arms typologies for the sake of better understanding and to ease the identification of each company’s production. These typologies include nuclear weapons, cluster bombs, non-nuclear missiles, fighter planes, fighter helicopters, military electronics, tanks, submarines, light weapons, warships, military explosives and bullets. The definitions of each of them are displayed on the database interface.

Types of financing

  1. The granting of credit to arms companies: as for the case of commercial banking or investment banking. While the former includes one or many FIs offering or participating in loans to nuclear weapons producers through either general corporate finance or project finance, the latter includes banking services helping arms companies to sell shares and bonds to investors (asset managers, insurance companies etc.), regardless of how the proceeds are used (most of the time for general corporate purposes), and offering financial advisory services.
  2. Underwriting of bond & share issuances: an underwriter company manages the issuance of bonds or shares by a corporation. The underwriter and the issuing corporation work together to determine the price, then if an agreement is reached, the underwriter buys the shares or bonds from the corporation and then sells them to investors.
  3. The management of investment funds, stocks and bonds in arms companies: A management investment company manages publicly issued fund shares, they can manage both open-end funds and closed-end funds. These companies also can issue shares of funds from pooled investment: Investors buy shares of funds which incur sales commission charges as well as operational expenses.

Sources

Notes

  • (1) SEPI (Sociedad Estatal de Participaciones Industriales) is an entity of Public Law. While it operates in accordance with the private legal system, some public law norms apply to it, such as norms resulting from the General Budgetary Law, additional budget laws, and laws on government contracts and procurements, among others. SEPI is a strategic institution used in the application of government-designed policies for the public business sector, and it has both direct and majority participation in 15 companies, including Navantia and DEFEX in the defense sector, in addition to the indirect and minority participation in a further 100 companies according to their 2016 annual report.