28 July 2021

[...] 19 international banks hold shares worth over US$65 billion across 18 companies affiliated with the military junta and its conglomerates in Myanmar. These companies have either direct and longstanding commercial ties to Myanmar’s military, or to state entities that the military now controls as a result of the February 1, 2021 attempted coup.

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All of these banks have a responsibility to act on their business relationship with these companies and to account for how they are doing so. The OECD Guidelines for multinational enterprises and the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights both clearly set out that international investors, including banks, have a responsibility to use their leverage to ensure their investee companies act to prevent or mitigate human rights abuses. Investors are expected to divest from companies where they repeatedly fail to act.

BankTrack and Justice For Myanmar are calling on international banks and all other institutional investors to immediately divest from companies with longstanding, direct ties to the military and its conglomerates, and to demand that other companies halt all payments to military-controlled entities immediately.

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