Banks must end their support for weapons!
The standpoint of Netwerk Vlaanderen vzw, Forum voor Vredesactie vzw, For Mother Earth and Vrede vzw does not leave any room for doubt: investments in the arms industry cannot contribute to a sustainable society. We demand that money is used in a positive way, for the benefit of people and the environment.

Banks control the flow of money. They determine what is financed, and what is not financed, and under which conditions. In this way, they determine the direction and the speed in which our society develops. They carry a great responsibility. It is only logical that they are asked to limit their financial dealings that injure our society.

For this reason, we demand that they end their financing of arms companies, and no longer invest in these companies.

In order to achieve this, the banks will need draw up guidelines or codes of conduct that forbid the financing of the military industry.

Banks have to lay their cards on the table!
Customers must have clarity about the financing and investment policies and practices of their banks. Banks work with the money of their customers. These customers have a right to know how that money is used.

In order to achieve this transparency, banks will have to:

• make public their policy regarding financing of the military industry;



• reveal the list of companies that they are financing or in which they are investing.


The government must enforce transparency
The government must be ready to enforce transparency about loans and other financial support that is given to companies.

The government can take the following steps:


• The data that is currently available to the Central Corporate Credit Register (CKO) of the National Bank of Belgium should be made public.
  
  
• A legal obligation must exist to make public the financing of “socially questionable practices”.



• The investments of pension funds and (life) insurance funds must be made public, in the same way that there is currently an obligation for investment funds to make this information public;



• Financial institutions must be obliged to report the social and environmental aspects of their investment policies;



• Funding must be made available for pilot projects in which this reporting is developed together with NGOs;



• The obligation for commercial discretion must be more clearly limited. It should be determined that this does not apply to the name, outstanding amount, the form (credits, shares) and term, where this relates to legal persons;



• Financial institutions must be obliged to include a clause in every credit contract for legal persons, which gives banks the right to make certain details public (name, amount, form and term).