HSBC response to Facing Finance rejoinder
On defence, our position is quite clear and the publicly available defence policy, available at http://www.hsbc.com/our-approach/sustainability/finance [references]...anti-personnel mines and cluster bombs...other weapons...On shareholdings, we can only repeat that HSBC usually appears on companies' shares registers where it acts either as a custodian of assets for another financial institution or as the nominee holder. On the low-carbon economy, Facing Finance has taken one paragraph from the speech cited, that, on its own, does not reflect HSBC's approach to climate change. The speech highlights specific actions to move towards the low carbon economy, including for example green bonds for sustainable investment. We recognise that within the energy sector, coal fired power plants are the most significant contributor to climate change...The revisions on the mining and metals policy, expected to be published later this year, will further extend the limitations on HSBC's involvement with coal...[also refers to statement on Forestry and Palm Oil]