Archived press release

Hsbc - profiting at the expense of people and the planet

30 May 2003

Campaigners from Friends of the Earth will be attending HSBC's Annual General Meeting today, to ask questions about the bank's appalling record of arranging finance for and investing in companies that are damaging in the environment and linked to human rights abuses.

HSBC Holdings plc, is one of the world's largest banking and financial services multinationals. It has recently used multi-million pound advertising campaigns to re-brand itself as "The world's local bank" because it claims to believe that "the world is a rich and diverse place where cultural differences need to be respected".

But Friends of the Earth will today expose how HSBC's customers' money has been used to finance companies destroying rainforests in Indonesia and oil companies linked to human rights atrocities in the Sudan. The multinational has also been linked to the controversial Three Gorges Dam in China.

Although HSBC claims to have improved the social and environmental criteria in its investment policies, it has refused to provide Friends of the Earth with copies of the new policy. HSBC has also failed to provide any assurances that it won't invest in companies that cause harm to people and the planet.

The exposé comes on the day that the TUC is calling for HSBC's investors to vote against the proposed "fat cat" pay package which is seeking to reward directors with financial pay offs of up to £20 million. Friends of the Earth supports the TUC's call, given that HSBC directors are failing on all three aspects of the triple bottom line; financial, social and environmental performance.

Craig Bennett, Corporate Accountability Campaigner for Friends of the Earth said:

"People with HSBC bank accounts may unwittingly be fuelling oil conflict and human rights abuses in the Sudan, rainforest destruction in Indonesia and damaging dam building in China. The `World's Local Bank' is just unsustainable big business as usual, putting the interests of fat-cat directors before those of vulnerable communities and their local environment.

"HSBC is a clear example of why the Government needs to place duties on directors to minimise the socially and environmentally damaging impacts of their business activities. Then we will see a real change in how HSBC - and the rest of UK plc - does business".

A full media briefing (PDF† 156K) on HSBC is available from the press office at Friends of the Earth from Friday 30th May.

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If you're a journalist looking for press information please contact the Friends of the Earth media team on 020 7566 1649.

Published by Friends of the Earth Trust