Bank Better
Individuals have been protesting outside banks, signing petitions, and sending letters for decades – and yet, banks across the globe continue to pour money into the fossil fuel, weapons and border surveillance industries like there is no tomorrow. That’s why, we must move beyond individual bank switching, and instead hit banks where it hurts most: their own pockets.
We call on all organisations and institutions to:
- Close their accounts with deadly banks
- Refuse sponsorship or money from deadly banks
The truth is that while many people have moved their private bank accounts to ethical banks, the vast majority of organisations and businesses – who have capital and influence way beyond what most individuals hold – have not. It is now time to push our institutions – workplaces, universities, community centres, places of worship, cafés, nightclubs – to divest from the industries causing damage to lives, livelihoods and ecosystems; and to demonstrate that we do not consent to banks funding these practices.
Bank Better is a network of organisers and campaigners, supported by Tipping Point UK. Through the network, organisers can coordinate their campaigns with each other and share information and strategies. We work very closely with Boycott Bloody Insurance, an organisational boycott campaign of the insurance companies destroying the planet and causing misery, to support finance campaigners pushing for divestment across multiple industries.
Why UK Banks?
Countries that have contributed the least to the global climate crisis and are on the frontlines of disastrous climate impacts are scrambling to secure funds to adapt to droughts, fires and floods. Despite this, UK banks are still happily financing new fossil fuel projects and the expansion of existing fossil fuel sites. In 2023 alone, the five big UK high street banks – Barclays, HSBC, Santander, Lloyds, and NatWest – provided $56 billion to the fossil fuel industry.
A similar picture is painted when looking at who funds the arms industries: from 2021 to 2023, five UK banks alone (Natwest, HSBC, Lloyds, Barclays and Standard Chartered) provided €7.6 billion in loans and underwriting to companies providing weapons to the Israeli Defense Force. Although less research exists on the financing of the border and detention industries, what we do know shows similar trends: HSBC alone has provided over $1.5 billion to companies involved in the surveillance and detention of migrants, and Barclays has £29 million in shares in two companies alone.
Globally, we are subjected to an economic system which values profit over people. This system thrives on the systematic transfer of value from the Global South to the Global North through cheap labour that extracts raw materials, requiring constant expansion and energy usage to keep creating profit. The UK financial infrastructure is at the heart of this system – it creates the demand for and gains from this profit.
WHY ORGANISATIONAL BOYCOTTS?
The money that banks use to invest in the industries that are ruining our lives and destroying our planet belong to all of us – it’s held in the bank accounts of the institutions that we engage with every day! Organisational boycotts go beyond individual bank switching, seeking to shift large amounts of money by convincing our institutions and communities to refuse to work with deadly banks. Organisations hold much more money than individuals, and the financial impact of a movement of bank switches will be more keenly felt by the financial institutions we are targeting.
Beyond the financial impact of organisational boycotts, the reputational damage caused to banks by the public calling-out of their practices is greater when coming from institutions, especially those that are trusted by many like charities, community centres, and places of worship. Banks routinely invest great resources in greenwashing, pink washing and other PR stunts to make themselves seem trustworthy – and organisational boycotts have the power to tear down these images and expose the destructive practices of banks.
Organisational boycotts also have the potential of uniting many movements for liberation: it is the same financiers that support the destruction of our planet, the displacement of people, and the bombs that drop across the world. We know that winning is possible: for example, after a 16-year boycott campaign, Barclays pulled out of financing apartheid South Africa in 1986!
By coming together and organising in our communities, we can remove the material and social support of these deadly practices, and push banks to cut ties with the fossil fuel, arms and border industries. Get involved and join the Bank Better campaign!