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HSBC is propping up Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine.

(Updated on Friday August 19th to include link to letter to Citi CEO)

Citi are propping up Putin’s war. Here’s how:

Citi is a giant US bank, and its involvement with the Russian economy – and Putin – is the largest among all US banks.

The Ukrainian government is accusing four major banks of war crimes for their continued funding of business with Russian fossil fuels. Citi, HSBC, JP Morgan and Crèdit Agricole are lending billions of dollars a year to fossil fuel companies.

Here’s the press release with all the major facts and figures you need:

New research shows that underwriting coal, oil & gas bonds is a glaring loophole in banks’ net-zero targets

• Banks have underwritten $2.7 trillion worth of coal, oil and gas bonds since the 2015 Paris climate agreement. 

Why are staff speaking out?

The science couldn’t be clearer, we simply cannot have any more NEW fossil fuel drilling to keep to a safe world. Yet, HSBC is the worst funder of new fossil fuel project companies in Europe, that’s billions of dollars a year to the companies accelerating the climate crisis.

There are plenty of wins happening across the world in the fight to get bank to stop funding fossil fuel projects. Here’s a few of the biggest:

Pressure on Crédit Agricole

Right now, French banking giant Crédit Agricole lends billions of dollars a year to fossil fuel companies.

Quick question: what’s the best way to get the attention of the Royal Bank of Canada’s CEO?

Answer: Take his giant inflatable head to a golf tournament he’s sponsoring.

If you think we’re serious about taking on greenwashing by slapping HSBC on the wrist for misleading ads, you should see what they’re doing in Germany. German police raided HQs of Deutsche Bank (and a Deutsche Bank subsidiary called DWS) because they’re under investigation for lying about how green their investments are.

Stuart Kirk clearly misread the crowd. He did a public presentation at an event called Moral Money, where he said everything you can imagine a Head of Responsible Investment for HSBC shouldn’t say about climate.

Here’s the letter written to Noel Quinn, HSBC’s CEO, about Stuart Kirk’s presentation called “Why investors need not worry about climate risk”. In the talk he said “There’s always some nut job telling me about the end of the world”, “Climate change is not a financial risk that we need to worry about” and “Who cares if Miami is six metres underwater in 100 years?”.

Deutsche Bank’s AGM was a huge target for climate activists around the world. And boy, that target was smashed to smithereens!

All the pressure resulted in Deutsche Bank pulling a bunch of financial support out of the gigantic Whitehaven Coal Mine in Australia.

The CEOs of Barclays and HSBC were talking at a sustainability event in the heart of London. They were there to talk about how they’re going to reach net zero by 2050, and why they’re solving the climate crisis.

Barclays’ bosses must have had a serious headache after their AGM, and not just because activists set off the alarms.

Barclays are the largest funder of fossil fuels in Europe, and seventh largest in the world.

HSBC had a really tough day on AGM Friday. And it’s because of people and campaigners around the UK landed two big blows.

🤫 PS.

What an incredible result. A quarter of Credit Suisse (CS) shareholders are telling CS to clean up on climate by voting against management and demanding a fossil fuel funding phase out.

AGMs are meant to be where CEOs boast about their profits and give each other high fives. But this was something different. Three of the biggest fossil fuel funders in the world had their AGMs today – and shareholders are sending a clear message that they need to sort it out.

This is a guest post by the activists at Yale Endowment Justice Coalition, who confronted their professor and Citi board member, Ernesto Zedillo today:

This morning, we at the Yale Endowment Justice Coalition, confronted Professor Ernesto Zedillo about Citigroup’s fossil fuel holdings.

🚨Update – Citi just had it’s AGM. There were two unprecedented votes on stopping new fossil fuel expansion and stopping the violation of indigenous rights. Both got much more support than expected, but neither passed.

What an incredible 2 hours. Campaigners across Africa came together to share stories, discuss tactics and take action against the East Africa Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP). The giant EACOP pipeline is set to devastate livelihoods, homes and habitats, mainly in Tanzania.

Before COP26, Mark Carney, who is in charge of wrangling global banks to join his Net-Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA), wrote a piece in the Financial Times about numbers.

🚨 Update 🚨

Two big updates since this article was first published:

1. As a result of the multiple failings outlined below, Credit Suisse are facing TWO major shareholder revolts.

The Verde Island Passage is known as the “Amazon of the sea” because of it’s incredibly diverse wildlife, is facing danger from giant fossil fuel companies who are trying to open it up for gas drilling.

UniCredit are doing their best to avoid facing up to their dirty investments. They’ve poured over $36bn into fossil fuels since 2016, and have avoided taking any real steps to cutting it out fully.

People across Canada are taking on RBC.

This was meant to be a day for Canada’s biggest bank, RBC had their AGM where their super rich investors come together to celebrate their profits, rub themselves on the back, and high five each-other.