Commerzbank – deadly bank

HEADQUARTERS

Frankfurt am Main, Germany

publicly traded

YES

operations

Global: focused on Germany, subsidiaries in UK, Poland, China, Russia, US, France and Luxembourg

LARGEST SHAREHOLDERS

Unicredit S.P.A (24.78%)
Government of Germany (12.1%)
Amundi Asset Management SASU (3%)
Norges Bank Investment Management (2.99%)

subsidiaries

List of subsidiaries

total assets

£582 billion (2025)

financing overview

climate crisis	genocide in Gaza	Palestine occupation	controversial weapons	Migrant abuse
£10,472,584,000	£1,477,285,000	£4,920,000,000	£2,264,000,000	£320,000,000
Investments totalling more that £10M in BP, Glencore and Siemens	Provides nearly £1.5bn in loans and underwriting to four companies whose weapons and technology is being used by Israel in its attacks on Palestinians	Provides nearly £5 billion in loans and underwriting to companies enabling or profiting from the occupation	Makes £2.2bn available to nuclear weapons producers through the indirect means of loans and underwriting	Bankrolls Airbus, responsible for surveillance of migrants

Company highlights and involvement

company involved		funding	climate crisis	gaza genocide	cont. weapons	PALESTINE OCCUPATION	MIGRANT ABUSE
BP		£294m
GLENCORE		£530m
SIEMENS		£284m
AIRBUS		£320m
BAE SYSTEMS		£73m
BOEING		£991m
LEONARDO		£175m
ROLLS-ROYCE		£175m
CATERPILLAR		£774m
AXEL SPRINGER		£266m
MAN GROUP		£748m

Fossil fuel companies bankrolling the climate crisis

Funded: £530m

climate crisis

Glencore, one of the world’s largest mining companies and a leading trader of fossil-fuel commodities, embodies the brutal realities of neocolonial exploitation. Glencore accounts for a significant portion of global coal production, operating mines in countries like Colombia, South Africa, and Australia, while systematically ravaging environments and trampling human rights.

Its operations in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are a stark example, where investigations revealed years of waste acid discharge from its Luilu copper refinery, causing severe pollution and ongoing spills. Glencore’s denial of responsibility for child labour at its sites, instead blaming impoverished locals, is a cynical attempt to deflect from its own complicity. Further exposing its predatory practices, the Paradise Papers leak unveiled Glencore’s ties to controversial figures who facilitated the acquisition of undervalued mining rights, robbing the DRC of a tenth of its annual budget.

Glencore’s corruption extends across Nigeria, Côte d’Ivoire, and Cameroon, with its former head of oil trading and four executives facing UK bribery charges, including allegations of flying cash bribes on private jets. In South America, its copper mining has poisoned indigenous lands and rivers in Peru, devastating the health and livelihoods of the Quechua and K’ana peoples while denying compensation. The company’s dark history also includes funding state security forces and paramilitary groups in Colombia and the Philippines to intimidate and murder communities resisting its exploitation.

Funded: £294M

gaza genocide

climate crisis

BP, one of the world’s largest energy corporations, is a symbol of ruthless greed and imperial exploitation. Born as the Anglo-Persian Oil Company in 1909, it was the engine of British imperialism, securing control over Iranian oil through corruption and coercion while the Iranian people were left impoverished and dispossessed.

BP’s legacy is stained with environmental catastrophe and human suffering. The 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster unleashed nearly five million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, killing untold marine life and devastating ecosystems, all while BP cynically promoted its “Beyond Petroleum” greenwashing campaign.

Now, BP is complicit in genocide, supplying oil that fuels Israel’s brutal war machine against Palestinians. Weeks into the genocide, BP accepted an Israeli gas exploration license, proving yet again its callous disregard for oppressed communities.

Companies bankrolling the occupation of palestine

Funded: £266m

palestine occupation

Axel Springer SE is a European multinational mass media company, based in Berlin, Germany. The company offers printing and publishing of advertisements, digital classifieds portfolio, marketing models and related services. Axel Springer’s operations are segmented into News Media, Classifieds Media, and Marketing Media. The company is organised as a publishing house and is one of the largest mass media publishers in the EU with numerous multimedia news brands, such as Bild, Die Welt, Fakt, and the US political news site Politico.

Springer’s Israeli classified ads website Yad2 — the largest Craigslist-like classifieds site in the country — publishes real estate listings across Israel, including rental apartments and sales in Israeli settlements that are considered illegal under international law. Since its founding in 2005, Yad2 has become Israel’s top online platform for classified ads.

A complaint was filled earlier by the Jerusalem Legal Aid and Human Rights Centre on behalf of the Palestinians, the complaint says that Yad2’s facilitation of settlement activity fuels Israeli land grabbing and therefore violates Germany’s Supply Chain Due Diligence Act. Passed last year, the law requires German companies to identify and mitigate human rights risks within their global supply chains, including in subsidiaries which they control.

Springer enshrines support for Israel in its mission statement, formal internal guidance that the company calls its “essentials.” All of Springer’s subsidiaries and employees are bound to uphold this stance. In October 2023, the firm fired a Lebanese employee who questioned the pro-Israel policy.

Funded: £748m

palestine occupation

MAN Group is a German multinational company and a leading supplier of commercial vehicles and transport solutions in Europe. As reported by Who Profits, the company supplies the chassis for the car that carries the “Skunk”. This non-lethal crowd control weapon made by Odortec has been widely used by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank, East Jerusalem, and within the Green Line against Palestinians in demonstrations and as a punitive measure. It spreads a stench that attaches to bodies and objects for considerable periods.

MAN Group also supplies chassis for buses to Egged Group, an Israeli bus company that operates bus lines to settlements in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.

Caterpillar is a long-standing supplier of the Israeli military and provides it with a variety of heavy engineering machinery, including different wheel loaders, armored excavators, mini loaders and several models from the D9 armored bulldozer series (D9R, D9N, D9L and D9T).

Caterpillar machinery has been widely used for house demolition and settlement construction in the occupied Palestinian territory, as well as for the construction of the Separation Wall in the occupied West Bank and the barrier surrounding besieged Gaza.

Fitted D9 Caterpillar bulldozers are extensively used by the Israeli military to accompany military forces during invasions and military arrests in the occupied West Bank and Gaza.

D9 Caterpillar bulldozers have demolished thousands of homes in Gaza since the latest conflict started in 2023. They have caused massive damage and made large parts of Gaza uninhabitable.

Funded: £284m

palestine occupation

CLIMATE CRISIS

Siemens is a publicly traded German multinational technology company. It sells products to the manufacturing, infrastructure and transport sectors. It has sold these products to the Israeli state-owned companies and its products have been used in occupied territories.

Case study: Siemens train cars used in the A1 route

In 2018, Siemens won a tender from the Israeli state-owned railway company, Israel Railways, for the supply of 330 electric cars in the amount of approximately NIS 4 billion, as part of the Israel Railways electrification project, which includes the Tel Aviv Jerusalem Fast Train (A1).

The tender included the provision of wagons in the amount of NIS 3.2 billion, the establishment of the maintenance facility for the wagons in the amount of NIS 230 million and maintenance services in the amount of approximately NIS 400 million. The tender included the purchase of 60 sets of electric cars, which make up about 330 cars, which contain about 33,000 seats. In addition, Siemens will build a maintenance facility for the electric cars for the company and provide maintenance services.

In December 2021, the Siemens train cars came into use in the A1 train route. The A1 train route crosses the Green Line into the occupied West Bank in two areas, using occupied Palestinian land, some of it privately owned, for an Israeli transportation project aimed exclusively for Israelis. In December 2021, the Siemens train cars came into use in the A1 train route.

For more on the A1 train see Who Profits report: Crossing the Line: The Tel Aviv Jerusalem Fast Train (A1).

Funded: £774m

palestine occupation

gaza genocide

Caterpillar Inc. is a U.S.-based multinational manufacturer and provider of civil and military engineering machinery. Caterpillar is the world’s largest manufacturer of construction and mining equipment. The company operates in three sectors: resource industries, construction industries and power systems.

Fitted D9 Caterpillar bulldozers are extensively used by the Israeli military to accompany military forces during invasions and military arrests in the occupied West Bank and Gaza.

D9 Caterpillar bulldozers have demolished thousands of homes in Gaza since the latest conflict started in 2023. They have caused massive damage and made large parts of Gaza uninhabitable.

Weapons Companies bankrolling the Gaza Genocide and Cont. Weapons

Funded: £991m

controversial weapons

gaza genocide

Boeing is not only a global aerospace giant but also a pivotal enabler of the Israeli genocide of Palestinians. The company has supplied Israel with vast quantities of advanced weaponry, notably its Joint Direct Attack Munition kits, which convert unguided bombs into precision-guided munitions. These Boeing-manufactured weapons have been linked to numerous deadly attacks on densely populated civilian areas, in what Amnesty International and other human rights organisations have condemned as potential war crimes. Boeing’s Apache attack helicopters and F-15 fighter jets have also played a central role in Israeli military campaigns, further amplifying the scale and lethality of operations in Gaza.

Beyond its role in conventional warfare, Boeing is a key contractor in the U.S. nuclear weapons program, maintaining and supporting the guidance systems for Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missiles, which are central to the U.S. nuclear arsenal. This dual role—supplying both conventional and nuclear arsenals—places Boeing at the heart of global military-industrial power, with its products implicated in both genocide and the ongoing threat of nuclear escalation.

Case study: Joint Direct Attack Munitions used on Palestinians

On 10 and 22 October 2023, two Israeli air strikes—using Boeing-manufactured Joint Direct Attack Munitions —killed 43 civilians, including 19 children, in Deir al-Balah, Gaza. Amnesty International’s forensic analysis confirmed Boeing’s JDAM fragments and manufacturing codes in the rubble of destroyed homes, where survivors reported no prior warning. The attacks, lacking any apparent military objective, obliterated families and left survivors in shock.

US-made weapons facilitated the mass killings of extended families

Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s Secretary General

Funded: £312m

controversial weapons

GAZA GENOCIDE

Rolls-Royce, the UK’s second-largest arms manufacturer, is deeply entwined with both Britain’s nuclear weapons programme and Israel’s machinery of war in Gaza. Through its German subsidiary MTU, Rolls-Royce supplies the engines powering Israel’s Merkava 4 and 5 tanks, Namer armoured personnel carriers, and Eitan armoured fighting vehicles—hardware extensively deployed during the 2023 ground invasion of Gaza, including in attacks on medical facilities such as Shifa Hospital. These engines are the most significant Merkava component made outside Israel, forming the backbone of armoured assaults that have killed thousands and devastated civilian infrastructure. Rolls-Royce also provides propulsion systems for 80% of the Israeli Navy’s patrol boats, which enforce the illegal and deadly blockade of Gaza.

On the nuclear front, Rolls-Royce holds contracts to supply reactor cores for the UK’s Trident missile submarines, directly supporting Britain’s weapons of mass destruction.

Funded: £73m

gaza genocide

controversial weapons

BAE Systems is the United Kingdom’s largest arms manufacturer and ranks as the sixth largest globally by revenue. The company is a critical partner in the F-35 Lightning II program and is responsible for approximately 15% of the aircraft’s components. BAE also holds four active military export licences to Israel, issued since 2021.

One of its most controversial products is the M109 howitzer, capable of firing 155mm shells, including white phosphorus rounds and described by BAE as achieving the “optimal balance between lethality… and reliability.”

Human rights groups have presented evidence that these BAE-supplied howitzers were unleashed by Israeli forces in Gaza, firing white phosphorus shells into densely populated civilian areas. This constitutes a flagrant war crime under international law, unleashing unspeakable suffering.

Furthermore, a United Nations investigation revealed BAE equipment was deployed in a January 2024 bombing in Gaza that struck a building housing international doctors, including a British surgeon. This incident illustrates how UK-produced weapons are being used to target UK civilians.

Human rights groups, including Amnesty International, have presented evidence that BAE-supplied M109 howitzers were unleashed by Israeli forces in Gaza in October 2023. The howitzers fired white phosphorus shells into densely populated areas of Gaza. This constitutes a flagrant war crime under international law, given white phosphorus’s incendiary nature, which burns at extreme temperatures and causes horrific, life-altering injuries. The British manufacturer’s direct contribution to this arsenal links it to the crime of genocide and breaches of international humanitarian law.

Any time that white phosphorus is used in crowded civilian areas, it poses a high risk of excruciating burns and lifelong suffering

Lama Fakih, Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch

Funded: £320m

MIGRANT ABUSE

GAZA GENOCIDE

Airbus SE, headquartered in the Netherlands, is a multinational military and aerospace company that specializes in manufacturing commercial and military aircraft. Between 2008 and July 2024, the U.S. government awarded Airbus over $7.5 billion of contracts, the vast majority of which were held by the Departments of Defense (DHS) and Homeland Security (DHS).

U.S. immigration authority Customs and Border Protection (CBP) uses Airbus helicopters as part of its Air and Marine Operations (AMO) fleet. In 2023 alone, AMO’s enforcement resulted in 1,004 arrests and 89,909 apprehensions of immigrants. According to Airbus, it has provided aircraft for U.S. border enforcement operations since the 1980s.

CBP uses the Airbus AS350 Light Enforcement Helicopter (LEH) for “aerial patrol and surveillance of stationary or moving targets,” particularly in metropolitan areas. These helicopters are equipped with electro-optical (day) and infrared (night) sensors. Airbus has provided CBP with more than 100 helicopters from this series over the years, but started providing CBP with new and improved H125 helicopters, “uniquely configured” for the agency, in 2020. Airbus has described the new model as “one of the most advanced, high-tech law enforcement helicopters ever developed.”

CBP has also used the smaller Airbus EC120 helicopter as a “highly-effective aerial surveillance platform in the border desert areas where terrain can be difficult to traverse on foot.” CBP has frequently used this aircraft to assist ground agents in detecting traces left behind by people crossing the desert.

Airbus has collaborated extensively with Israeli Aerospace Industries (IAI) and between 2008 and 2021 applied for a UK export license to sell weapons to Israel. IAI and Airbus also have historically collaborated in joint commercial ventures. In 2011, Airbus Military and IAI came together to sign a Memorandum of Understanding to develop and market the C295 platform (a combat aircraft with surveillance systems). In 2018, Airbus signed a $600million deal with IAI to lease Heron TP drones to Germany’s Defence Ministry. These are unmanned drones which have been used in Gaza since October 2023, and have been reportedly deployed by German forces in Afghanistan for ‘a number of years’.

Airbus Defence and Space Airborne Solutions, a 100% subsidiary of Airbus, also partners with IAI to operate maritime aerial surveillance services for the European Border Agency. These drones, previously tested in operations conducted by the Israeli armed forces, are used to intercept migrant vessels crossing the Mediterranean. According to Statewatch, the choice of these drones was determined by their “performance… in the maintenance of public order by the Israeli Defence Forces and police forces”, implicating them in the ongoing enforcement of Israel’s system of colonial occupation and apartheid. Airbus has thus not only profited from – and helped Israel to profit from – the sale of weapons tested on Palestinians, but the company has also enabled Israel to establish itself as a leading provider of defence and commercial technologies on the global stage.

Funded: £175m

gaza genocide

controversial weapons

The Italian arms giant Leonardo supplies the deadly naval gun systems mounted on Israel’s Sa’ar-class warships, the brutal enforcers of Gaza’s illegal naval blockade. These warships, including the heavily armed Sa’ar 6 corvettes, form the backbone of Israel’s naval oppression, cutting off food, fuel, and medical supplies to Gaza’s besieged population. In October 2023, Leonardo’s weaponry saw its first bloody deployment as Sa’ar 6 ships bombarded Gaza, directly enabling Israel’s indiscriminate assault on Palestinian civilians. By arming these warships, Leonardo isn’t just complicit in collective punishment—it’s a key enabler of what legal experts say constitutes war crimes. While posing as a “defence” contractor, the company profits from the machinery of occupation, turning Gaza’s coastline into a militarised kill zone where Palestinian fishermen are shot at and humanitarian aid is blocked.

Leonardo has a 25% stake in the MBDA joint venture, which produces missiles for the French nuclear arsenal. MBDA is the prime contractor for ASMPA nuclear missiles for the French arsenal. MBDA is also involved in developing the new ASN4G replacement for the ASMPA. The new weapon is scheduled to enter service in 2035 with range exceeding 1,000km, double that of the ASMPA, and will incorporate new hypersonic technologies. Leonardo also provides the integrated electric propulsion components for the U.S. Navy’s Columbia-class submarine, for which it was awarded contracts valued at over $1 billion and $3 billion in April 2023 and January 2024 respectively