Global finance giant HSBC has fully divested from drone manufacturer Elbit Systems, one of Israel's largest arms manufacturers, controversially producing drones — sold internationally on the basis they're "combat proven" — white phosphorous and artillery systems used for cluster munitions.
In the past, its involvement in supplying surveillance systems and other technology to Israel's Separation Wall and settlements in the West Bank, and the US government for use on the country's border with Mexico, has led to it being excluded from pension and investment funds the world over. However, HSBC's investments in Elbit long went unacknowledged, until a 2017 War on Want report on UK banks' business dealings with companies selling military equipment and technology uncovered the connection.
Ryvka Barnard, a senior campaigner at the charity, hailed the "positive first step", stating doing business with companies such as Elbit "means profiting from violence and human rights violation, which is both immoral and a contravention of international law."
Ben Jamal, director of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, said the move was "proof positive" collective campainging works.
Iceberg Tip
HSBC's now-past investment in Elbit Systems is, however, just a single example of the bank's questionable practices. For one, it maintains business relations with over a dozen companies selling weapons and technology to the Israeli military, including Caterpillar — its bulldozers are used in the demolition of Palestinian homes and properties.
Moreover, the bank has frequently been compelled to pay vast fines in many countries for engaging in activity which, if not outright criminal, significantly breached financial regulations in respect of tax evasion, money laundering and other major misdemeanors.
The bank ended up paying a US$1.3 billion fine for violating the US Bank Secrecy Act, International Emergency Economic Powers Act and Trading with the Enemy Act "by failing to maintain an effective anti-money-laundering program and to conduct appropriate due diligence on its foreign correspondent account holders." It also paid US$665 million in civil penalties.
In March 2013 the government of Argentina filed criminal charges against HSBC for helping businesses evade taxes and launder money domestically — a precursor to the major 2015 scandal in which the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists released reports on HSBC's role in helping its Swiss private banking unit evade taxes.