Join CND and the Investing in Change network to challenge HSBC on their investment in nuclear weapons by writing to them.
You can post your letter to 8 Canada Square, London, E14 5HQ or send via email to ian.stuart.uk.ceo@hsbc.com.
There is a draft template below that you may find useful:
FAO CEO of HSBC Ian Stuart
Dear Ian Stuart,
I am writing to you as a HSBC bank account holder ahead of your AGM on the 29th April.
I was shocked to learn that you are heavily invested in companies that are involved in the production of nuclear weapons. I have trusted you to bank responsibly and am dismayed to find that you have invested almost $3000million in companies involved in the production of nuclear weapons since 2017.
It has been five years since the drafting of the Treaty On The Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) which, since 22nd Jan 2021, has now entered into force. This treaty makes illegal under international law the assistance of any State in the maintenance or development of nuclear weapons. Your investment in nuclear weapons producing companies does exactly that. It is impossible to fund a company that is producing nuclear weapons without indirectly contributing to their production and so it is not enough for you to only avoid funding nuclear weapons projects directly.
Nuclear weapons are now illegal because of their potential for indiscriminate and massive scale destruction: one detonation has the potential to kill millions of people. They pose a substantial risk to people and the planet, including to those who are impacted by the development, manufacture and testing of nuclear weapons. This is to say nothing of the long-term health impacts of exposure to nuclear fallout. The potential consequences of nuclear weapons, either deliberately or in the or in the event of accidental detonation is unparalleled in the natural world or by any other weapons.
The TPNW is proof that global public opinion is changing and now widely accepts the unconscionable risk and weighty moral challenge that nuclear weapons pose. It is time for HSBC to make a stand and end the financing of these most devastating weapons.
I await your response
Kind Regards
[YOUR NAME]