Germany: Report alleges financial institutions continue relationships with companies that have a record of human rights and environmental abuse
In May 2022, Facing Finance published a report investigating the financial relationships between German financial institutions and companies that have a record of human rights allegations. Facing Finance illustrated the financial flow between 14 financial institutions on the German market and 22 companies alleged to have abused, among others, the right to health, to remedy, or to free prior and informed consent of Indigenous Peoples and of communities with customary tenure rights. The value of the financial relationships found between these companies and the ten banks and four life insurers amounted to over 46 billion Euros in total.
Facing Finance asked a number of the financial institutions and companies to respond - where available, statements can be found in the main report and here.
In June 2022, Business & Human Rights Resource Centre invited 18 of the financial institutions and other companies to respond. Allianz, Alte Leipziger, Commerzbank, DZ Bank, Deutsche Bank, DWS, ING, Landesbank Baden-Württemberg (LBBW), Leonardo and BAE Systems responded. Axa, BayernLB, HypoVereinsbank (UniCredit Group), PT Semen Indonesia and Stadtsparkasse Düsseldorf did not respond, while DekaBank, Raytheon and Zurich declined to comment.
Company responses and non-responses are available below. We will indicate here if we receive any additional responses.