Why are Australian banks investing in nuclear weapons companies?

Yet, according to a just-released report by the Nobel Peace Prize-winning International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN)¹, three Australian Banks (ANZ, Westpac and CBA – the owner of ASB), have loaned or invested over US$2.7 billion to companies involved in the design, manufacture, testing and servicing of nuclear weapons. ANZ and Westpac are responsible for most of this lending and collectively manage more than 35% of the KiwiSaver market. Their shares, as investments, are owned by a substantial number of KiwiSaver schemes.

Each year ICAN publishes a report showing which financial institutions have invested in the 18 companies most heavily involved in the nuclear weapons industry. ANZ and Westpac are prominent on this list, with both banks providing significant capital (a total of more than US$1.3 billion each in investment in equity and debt) to companies integral to the production of nuclear weapons.

The companies include names such as AECOM, Fluor Corp, General Dynamics, Honeywell International, Jacobs Engineering, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Serco Group. AECOM, in which ANZ invested or loaned US$28 million, for instance, is involved in the research, design, development and production of nuclear bombs at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in the US.

Fluor Corp, in which ANZ invested US$70 million and Westpac invested US$112 million, is involved in several US nuclear weapons enterprise facilities including Savannah River Nuclear Solutions where it develops key components for nuclear warheads. Honeywell International manages and operates numerous nuclear weapons production, design and testing facilities, as well as manufacturing numerous components for warheads and missiles. Westpac lends $686 million, and ANZ $112 million to this firm.