Soon the first German tanks by the Qatari desert will roll. 62 heavy battle tanks type Leopard 2 A7 + and 24 howitzers provide German arms companies in the Gulf emirate. The export is one of the most controversial and largest arms deals in recent years, almost 1.9 billion euros earning German tanks Bauer so. And German banks benefit from the mega deal. They finance the manufacturer of tanks and howitzers, give them credit, help when placing bonds or hold shares.
The armored vehicles delivers Krauss-Maffei Wegmann (KMW) of Munich, important parts such as the gun barrel of the tank coming from Rheinmetall, Germany’s biggest arms company. KMW and Rheinmetall are financed inter alia by BayernLB, Commerzbank, German bank HypoVereinsbank (UniCredit) – that give organizations Facing Finance and urgewald to, working against environmental destruction, corruption and critical arms deals with financial transactions. This Thursday they publish the study The arms of my bank. where they describe how German banks put the money of their clients in the defense industry.
In times of uncertainty can achieve good yields with the defense industry: Because of the fight against the terrorists of the “Islamic State” in Syria and Iraq, the fear of an aggressive Russia, the wars in Afghanistan and Mali create the NATO countries on new weapons and ammunition. However, the Persian Gulf countries and North Africa, traditionally good customers of the German armories, upgrade to continue.
For its shops with weapons manufacturers, banks express on demand TIME not concrete. They point to the banking secrecy – and on its internal rules for handling the arms industry. The German Bank leaves about know that they “a strict set of rules and guidelines for relationships with arms-producing companies” have. And Commerzbank informs that in transactions involving arms reference in principle takes place an intensive individual assessment, “which may result in rejection of the transaction or business relationship”. The acts restrictive – but the policies of the banks sound sharper than they are.
In fact, most major banks and regional banks invest in various defense companies in Germany – and in the United States, as the study of Facing Finance and urgewald occupied. And, although the majority of bank customers investing in arms manufacturers rejects, as revealed by a representative survey, 2013. The statement “If I knew that my bank finances armor or invested in them, I would change the bank” agreed 61 percent of respondents. While many institutions have since developed guidelines to problematic arms, says Barbara Happe of urgewald. “Unfortunately, they are often still very sketchy.”
excluded only investments in producers of cluster munitions and anti-personnel mines, a sober concept which means weapons that tear terrible wounds in victims. For Facing Finance, urgewald and other organizations had fought in recent years. Your campaigns have led to public protest, and most banks put the manufacturers of such armaments on their blacklists. In other defense companies but they continue to do business. Deals such as the Panzer exports to Qatar are also possible – even if many banks publicly give a completely different impression.
It is in Germany’s second largest bank, “Commerzbank does not participate in deliveries of weapons and military equipment to conflict and tension areas.” He continued: “This is to avoid the escalation of conflicts in assessing the recipient countries moreover be taken into account criteria such as the form of government and the current human rights situation..”
The case of Qatar, however, shows that these rules hardly prevent investments. The purchaser of German tanks and howitzers, which are produced by Commerzbank business partners, located on the troubled Arabian Peninsula, the war in Syria and Yemen are not far away. Qatar is committed on the part of Saudi Arabia in two conflicts – and helped defeat of the Arab Spring in Bahrain.
There is another deal by Rheinmetall, which provides for review. The group develops together with partners in Algeria to a factory for the Radpanzer Fuchs. 1,200 military vehicles to be assembled there. The Joint Conference Church and Development (GKKE), a panel of experts who present a Military Equipment Export Report annually, “is concerned about these transactions and the concern of the Federal Government, Algeria upgrade, just because in the evaluation of the situation on the ground (…) a critical and worrying overall picture “.
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