Banks| Policies| Dodgy Deals| Campaigns
About us| Blog| Publications| Successes| Contact us| Donate
About BankTrack
Visit us
Organisation
Our team
Our board
Guiding principles
Team up with us
Jobs at BankTrack
Our annual reports
Funding and finances
History
BankTrack in the media
Our privacy policy
Donate
2022-06-30 00:00:00
BankTrack hosts webinars on the 2022 Banking on Climate Chaos report
2022-06-02 00:00:00
GFANZ must tighten the screw on fossil fuel expansion
2022-05-19 00:00:00
BNP Paribas and Société Générale: stop financing climate destruction and human rights abuses
2022-05-04 00:00:00
Barclays is big on beef and burning
2022-05-20 15:14:47
Seven financiers abandon TotalEnergies' EACOP pipeline in a week
2021-12-16 13:33:02
Cambo oil field "paused" following pressure on Shell & banks
2021-12-16 13:04:42
Equator Principles improve transparency after BankTrack shows the way
2021-11-02 11:03:26
ANZ launches human rights grievance mechanism in a first for the global banking sector
Connect
2022-04-05 00:00:00
The BankTrack Human Rights Benchmark Asia
2022-03-30 00:00:00
Banking on Climate Chaos 2022
2022-03-08 00:00:00
BankTrack Annual Report 2021
2022-03-03 00:00:00
Locked out of a Just Transition: fossil fuel financing in Africa
2021-12-14 00:00:00
Actions speak louder: Assessing bank responses to human rights violations
2021-10-26 00:00:00
Equator Compliant Climate Destruction: How banks finance fossil fuels under the Equator Principles
See all publications
Browse
Home
Banks
Policies
Dodgy Deals
Campaigns
About
About BankTrack
Donate
Contact BankTrack
Publications
Victories
Follow Us
News
BankTrack blog
Facebook
Twitter Fossil Banks No Thanks Twitter Fossil Banks No Thanks Instagram
Affiliate Websites
Fossil Banks No Thanks
StopEACOP
Forests & Finance
Banks & Biodiversity
Drop JBS
Bank of Coal
Don't Buy into Occupation
Home › News
Finance goes to war: Intesa Sanpaolo between Russian fossil industry and US gas
Intesa Sanpaolo is the Italian financial group with the closest relations with Moscow
Start
Banks

By: ReCommon
2022-06-08
Rome

Share this page:

Intesa Sanpaolo financed Russian fossil fuel companies with EUR 4.9 billion. Photo: ReCommon
Go to:
Start
Related Banks

Three months after the date that disrupted the lives of millions of people in Europe and the rest of the world by kicking off a new spiral of violence in Ukraine and repression in the Russian Federation, ReCommon publishes the report ‘Finance goes to war: Intesa Sanpaolo between Russia’s fossil industry and US gas’.

Intesa Sanpaolo is the Italian financial group with the closest relations with Moscow, looking after all major Italian investments in Russia and vice versa. Between 2016 and 2021, financing granted to the Russian fossil industry amounts to $ 4.9 billion, out of which $ 2.9 billion to Gazprom alone, the main state-controlled energy company, which can make the best of the situation when it comes to Russian gas exports to Europe, on which the latter is dependent, Italy first and foremost. The profits of these companies represent the coffer fueling the ongoing military offensive in Ukraine.

In addition to numbers, when talking about ‘exposure to Russian business’ there are also other data to consider: strong men in key positions and curious coincidences. These relate to the non-inclusion of Gazprombank among the Russian banks subject to economic sanctions by the European Union, through its exclusion from the SWIFT system. Intesa Sanpaolo and Gazprombank hold MIR, the first Italian-Russian investment fund. Moreover, the only Italian on the board of the SWIFT system is from Intesa Sanpaolo itself: Banca Intesa Russia, to be precise.

In the same years, the most important Italian bank has managed to break into the collective imagination as a sustainable bank serving the territories. Nothing could be further from reality: between 2020 and 2021, Intesa Sanpaolo financed the coal, oil and gas sectors with $9 billion, out of which 6.4 billion in 2021 alone: a +146% increase over the previous year. 

In terms of investments, as of January 1, 2022, they amounted to $ 4 billion: +50% from the previous year. It is precisely because of its mix of credit operations and investments in the fossil fuels business that Intesa Sanpaolo can be called the ‘No.1 fossil bank’ in Italy.

While waiting to see what will become of Intesa’s business in Russia, the group is also exposed in the United States, to which Italy has chosen to tie itself in a double bind for much of its new dependence on gas.

The gas coming to Europe from the United States is mainly produced in the Permian Basin, through the use of ultra-invasive operations such as fracking or horizontal drilling. It is estimated that between 2020 and 2050, the burning of all oil and gas reserves in the Permian Basin could produce the emission of 46 billion tons of CO2: a real ‘climate bomb’.

In the business of US-made gas, Intesa is already well positioned – primarily on the side of export terminals, ready to jump on the bandwagon of the ‘fossil winners’ of this war: between 2016 and 2021, it has in fact granted US$ 1.9 billion in loans to the multinationals most involved in Permian Basin oil and gas production and transportation, out of which US$ 830 million was for liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects.

"We demand that Intesa Sanpaolo implement an exit plan from the entire coal sector, stop financing fossil projects in the Arctic, and start divesting from all those companies that are expanding their fossil business as we speak. We also call on the group to immediately end any relationship with the Russian fossil industry", comment Simone Ogno and Daniela Finamore of ReCommon, authors of the report. "Investors, civil society organizations, environmental and climate justice movements are in the front row to denounce the group’s dirty business: very few now believe Intesa Sanpaolo’s greenwashing, which continues to paint a black business green", they conclude.

Download the report here

 

From www.ReCommon.org

Go to:
Start
Related Banks

Related banks

Intesa Sanpaolo Italy

active
Browse
Home
Banks
Policies
Dodgy Deals
Campaigns
About
About BankTrack
Donate
Contact BankTrack
Publications
Victories
Follow Us
News
BankTrack blog
Facebook
Twitter Fossil Banks No Thanks Twitter Fossil Banks No Thanks Instagram
Affiliate Websites
Fossil Banks No Thanks
StopEACOP
Forests & Finance
Banks & Biodiversity
Drop JBS
Bank of Coal
Don't Buy into Occupation
Vismarkt 15
6511 VJ Nijmegen
The Netherlands

Tel: +31 24 324 9220
Contact@banktrack.org
©2016 BankTrack                Webdesign by BankTrack and EASYmind
BankTrack is a registered charity in the Netherlands (ANBI) - RSIN 813874658
Find our privacy policy here

Stay up to date

Sign up now for all BankTrack's news


Make a comment

Your comment will be reviewed, before being posted