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The union and Norwegian People’s Aid have reviewed the funds that Norwegian banks offer to their customers, to see whether they invest in companies operating in the occupied Palestinian territories.
“Does your bank profit from the occupation of Palestine?” reads the campaign, which was first launched in 2020. It has received new life following Israel’s targeted attacks on the Gaza Strip in recent months.
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IN THE general description The union and Norwegian People’s Aid have prepared together, it seems that as many as 98 of Norway’s 101 banks are profiting from the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestine.
What Fagforbundet did not reveal in its campaign is that it itself has agreements with some of Sparebank 1, one of the banks not approved in the survey.
– Disclaimer
Nettavisen examined 101 banks in the review. It turns out that 98 of them invested in companies and funds that help finance the occupied territories in Palestine.
Among the Norwegian banks not approved in this survey, we find Nordea, DNB and several branches of Sparebank 1.
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According to the Union, some customers have contacted their banks because they want to send a clear signal:
– There are several people who sent us the answers they received from their banks and were dissatisfied, especially banks that only offer other people’s funds. This gives the impression of an abdication of responsibility, and they wonder what else they could have done. The Trade Union Confederation and Norwegian People’s Aid have been in contact with the banks and are following up with each one, Trade Union Confederation adviser Ingunn Eriksen told Nettavisen.
Here’s what the banks say
Small banks rarely have their own fund management. But big banks, such as SpareBank 1, will also point to funding providers when they are faced with questions from Nettavisen.
– Bank Sparebank 1 is not a fund manager, but a distributor. We offer mutual funds on a fund platform from a variety of managers that customers choose when investing. Therefore, banks are product distributors and not managers. As a result, the bank did not invest in the companies mentioned in the campaign, Tone Mesna, press officer at Sparebank 1 group, told Nettavisen.
The trade unions and Norwegian People’s Aid wrote in their campaign that banks cannot abdicate their responsibilities by pointing fingers at fund providers.
– We carry out ongoing assessments of the funds we distribute. “If it is true that there are funds that violate human rights, we will take the necessary action,” Mesna said.
This is how DnB and Nordea responded
This is how DnB responded: “DNB has received a number of inquiries in relation to the Trade Union Confederation and the Norwegian People’s Aid campaign. This email is standard text, stating that the customer has seen the campaign page, and is pleased to see that DNB has not invested in most of the companies on the list, and in which the customer asks why not all companies are excluded. To date, we are only aware of two customers who have reported that they wish to switch banks in light of this campaign.”
– Kari Vartdal Riise, communications advisor at DnB
This is how Nordea responded: “Customer service has received 4-5 inquiries over the weekend, and we also noted that several people have raised this issue in our comments section on Facebook. We took a closer look at information from Norwegian People’s Aid and the Trade Union Confederation, and evaluated all our holdings with the information we have. If it turns out that a company in which Nordea invests violates standards relating to human rights, the matter will be evaluated by Nordea’s responsible investment committee. If Nordea believes that a company has not addressed or explained the issue well enough, we may quarantine the company or remove the company from our portfolio.”
– Henrik Arneberg, head of content at Nordea
This is the statement from the Labor Union
“Our partner SpareBank 1 provides you as a member with good conditions for everything you need from a bank, such as loans, savings, insurance, daily banking and pensions.”, he said in LOfavor website.
As a member of the Trade Union, you belong to LOfavør.
Nettavisen has asked Fagforbundet how they assess cooperation with Sparebank 1, when the bank is among those that did not get the stamp of approval in their own investigation. They answered as follows:
– There are only three banks out of about 100 banks in our campaign, that do not offer funds with ownership in the 11 companies we have in our campaign. More than 50 percent of banks offer funds with ownership in 10 of the 11 companies. SpareBank 1 offers funds with holdings in three or four companies, said Ingunn Eriksen at Workers Union.
The four companies are for Sparebank 1: CEMEX, HPE, Caterpillar and Alstom.
Read more about these companies at the bottom of this case.
In a separate reply to the Workers’ Union, Sparebank 1 has explained which companies it refers to. They have certainly discussed this with the fund managers mentioned above, and are considering whether to freeze the funds, according to Eriksen.
He added that the Workers Union was only in dialogue with Sparebank 1 Østlandet.
– Our jointly owned subsidiary Sparebank 1 Gruppen, fund manager ODIN, does not invest in these companies, stressed Eriksen.
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– Funny
– If they really think what these banks are doing is so problematic, why don’t they sort out their own cooperation? This case has a funny side, Vebjørn Selbekk told Nettavisen.
Selbekk is the editor of the conservative newspaper Kristen Dagen. He was not satisfied with the Labor Union’s reasons for this collaboration:
– This is a classic example of double standards. The union encourages customers to hold banks and investors accountable, but even cooperates with the banks they warn against, Selbekk said.
Selbekk, an outspoken friend of Israel, was initially skeptical of such a campaign. He believes it would be difficult if one were to boycott all companies that have ties to an oppressive regime.
– This is a large international company. Of course they are included in the portfolio of serious investment funds. Caterpillar, for example, is one of the world’s largest construction machinery manufacturers. Should they be boycotted altogether, since they contribute to the destruction of occupied territories?
– Israel is a country with a very strong economy. If you really started boycotting all Israeli products like this, you would end up having very few products, he added.
Three banks approved
In its campaign, Fagforbundet singled out 11 major companies that make money from goods and services, or contribute to financing them, in the Israeli-occupied territories.
The Caterpillar company sells, among other things, bulldozers to Israel that are used to demolish Palestinian homes and destroy Palestinian land and infrastructure, as well as to build Israel’s so-called “security wall” or separation wall in the West Bank.
HP has supplied biometric systems that control Palestinian traffic in the occupied territories.
Cemex operates a stone quarry, while Alstom is part of a light rail project from West Jerusalem to illegal settlements, according to Campaign.
– There are only three banks that receive smiles from us: Cultura sparebank, Obos-banken and Spareskillingsbanken, says Eriksen.
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