Major insurance companies have piled investments into the arms industry over recent months, new research reveals.
Boycott Bloody Insurance – and quickly
The research, looking at how insurance companies active in the UK are investing their money, shows that they pumped millions more into firms involved in nuclear weapons, depleted uranium and white phosphorus immediately after Donald Trump was elected.
Earlier this month, the same researchers showed that companies active in the British insurance market actively increased their investments in firms involved in supplying Israel with military equipment over the last year.
Insurance firms are major investors across the economy. The new report from the campaign group Boycott Bloody Insurance, entitled Ensuring Destruction – the Insurance Industry and Controversial Weapons – looks at how much of that money is invested in firms which are involved in or associated with various ‘controversial weapons’ – a category which includes white phosphorous, depleted uranium and nuclear weapons.
They found that major insurance companies channelled $260m more towards companies involved in the production of these weapons in December 2024 than they did in September 2024. Among the group of companies assessed by the researchers – all major providers active in the UK market – investment in manufacturers of controversial weapons grew by 13% over the three month period.
Not just a UK problem
The British company, Aviva, increased their investment into companies which are involved in or associated with controversial weapons to £1.36bn, making it by far the biggest investor in these sorts of firms among the assessed insurers.
However, it’s not just Aviva which bet on growing global violence. Allianz, AXA, and Zurich, also grew their investments in these firms. In many cases, the insurers are investing in these companies in direct contradiction to their own responsible investment policies.
The researchers also looked at which companies were providing Employers’ Liability insurance for firms involved in or associated with controversial weapons, finding that all of the major insurers were doing so.
Andrew Taylor from the campaign said:
Insurance companies are a vital part of the global financial system. Their investments help drive the economy. Without the insurance they provide, other companies can’t operate. And yet these major household brands are providing money and underwriting services to companies whose core business is mass slaughter, mutilation of children, and machines of devastation. Often, these companies claim to have socially responsible investment policies, and yet they are using their customers’ money to prop up some of the least responsible firms on the planet, directly contradicting their own policies.
As global conflict and uncertainty escalate, these titans of the financial services sector are rushing money behind firms who will benefit from more conflict, more war and more chaos. We urgently need de-escalation of global violence, and are calling on businesses and organisations to boycott all insurance companies which invest in, and underwrite, firms involved in or associated with these controversial weapons.
The insurance industry is destroying the planet
This research comes on the back of another report, released earlier this year, which looked at the insurance industry’s involvement in Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
Entitled Ensuring Genocide – the Insurance Industry and Israel’s War Machine, the report found that major insurance companies active in the UK market have increased their investment in companies involved in Israel’s genocide of Gaza over the last year. Insurers including Allianz, Aviva, AXA, Zurich, and RSA collectively invested over $1.7 billion in companies supplying military equipment used by Israel since 7 October 2023.
The report also showed how these major insurance brands are profiting from the genocide themselves by underwriting the arms manufacturers who are supplying weapons to Israel.
Monika Nielsen the researcher for the campaign added:
Millions of people in the UK have been profoundly shocked by Israel’s genocide in Gaza. And they will be horrified to discover that the firms insuring their local councils, workplaces, places of worship or universities are the same companies funding and underwriting the production of the weapons Israel is using to blow up Palestinians’ homes, hospitals, schools and families. These firms don’t need to insure arms companies. We are calling on people to boycott them until they stop.
Featured image via Boycott Bloody Insurance/Comrade D
