I am sure you will appreciate that as a bank, for both regulatory and legal reasons we cannot discuss specific companies, even to confirm or deny they are a client. However, we do work with both clients and civil society to promote and encourage responsible behaviour.

We do recognise that there are many environmental and social challenges in the ship-breaking industry in Bangladesh, including hazardous environments for workers and the generation of hazardous wastes. We engage with our clients to address these and other issues through our position statements, including those on ship breaking and human rights. 

We have a relationship with a small number of selected companies in the ship-breaking sector.  We advocate and promote alignment with industry guidance including the UNEP/Basel Convention‘s “Technical guidelines for the environmentally sound management of the full and partial dismantling of ships” and the ILO’s “Safety and health in shipbreaking: Guidelines for Asian countries”.

We believe that we can and should remain engaged in the sector to support continued progress towards alignment with international standards, and our ongoing dialogue and engagement with clients enables us to monitor such progress.