26/11/2010
ORSE lays out guidelines for financial services to the weapons industry
Financial institutions are increasingly being asked by those they do business with to justify their investments, particularly in some potentially controversial sectors such as the weapons industry.Against this background, the members of the “Club Finance” at the French Social and Business Responsibility Observatory (Observatoire sur la responsabilité sociétale des entreprises, or ORSE) have set out to establish guidelines for the arms industry in terms of investment, financing, international commercial operations, and services.The white paper aims to define a common basis for an individual sectoral policy at each establishment. It may also potentially help to raise client awareness, ORSE explains.At the conclusion of their work, the members of the Club Finance decided not to exclude arms makers from the financial services they provide, even though several parties are calling on the financial sector not only to exclude any form of aid or assistance to businesses which are involved in the production of arms worldwide, but more generally to withdraw all assistance from the arms industry.
