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
2023-01-23 00:00:00
Berta Cáceres: new rules for banks could help stop defender killings
2023-01-16 00:00:00
In the balance: Why European due diligence legislation must cover financial services
2022-12-08 00:00:00
Exposed: Western banks funding Qatar’s carbon bombs
2022-12-08 00:00:00
Right-wing attack on sustainable finance is the latest form of climate denial
2022-12-14 11:08:26
HSBC announces it will no longer finance new oil and gas fields
2022-10-13 15:56:39
More major banks and insurers refuse to support EACOP
2022-09-16 10:38:48
European Parliament passes emergency resolution against human rights violations & environmental threats linked to EACOP
2022-06-27 09:49:16
Crédit Agricole takes first step to phase out from the oil and gas sector
Connect
2022-11-22 00:00:00
Banking on Thin Ice: Two years in the heat
2022-11-17 00:00:00
BankTrack Global Human Rights Benchmark 2022
2022-10-21 00:00:00
Burning forests in the name of clean energy? How banks are failing to exclude the harmful wood biomass industry from finance
2022-06-28 00:00:00
The East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP): Finance Risk Update No. 3
2022-04-05 00:00:00
The BankTrack Human Rights Benchmark Asia
2022-03-30 00:00:00
Banking on Climate Chaos 2022
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
UK and North America groups slam British ‘tar sands’ bank opening in Calgary
Treasury grilled in UK Parliament over public money being used by Royal Bank of Scotland to support tar sands development
Start
Banks
Dodgy Deals

By: Platform
2010-03-17
London

Contact:

 

Kevin Smith, Platform - +44-207 403 3738

Kate Blagojevic- World Development Movement - +44-207 820 4900/4913, +44-7711 875 345

Clayton Thomas-Muller - Indigenous Environmental Network - +1-613-789-5653

Adam Ramsay - People & Planet - +44 1865245678


Share this page:

Photo: -
Go to:
Start
Related Banks
Related Dodgy Deals

Environmental and anti-poverty groups in the UK have reacted angrily to the Royal Bank of Scotland opening an ‘oil and gas advisory' office in Calgary. RBS, which is 84% owned by the UK public has been the subject of controversy in the UK over its record of being the UK bank most heavily involved in financing fossil fuel projects and companies around the world.

Yesterday, a parliamentary transcript of the questioning was published showing that officials from the company created by the government to over see the bailed out banks, UK Financial Investments, had been vigorously questioned by MPs in a Select Committee hearing over whether or not RBS had been using public money to finance tar sands in Canada.

Speaking after the hearing, Martin Horwood, MP for Cheltenham and Environmental Audit Committee member, said:  "The Government must stop RBS using our money to drive the most damaging projects on earth. RBS is using taxpayer's money to finance projects and companies that are driving climate change all over the world. These projects include tar sands extraction in Canada that is trampling on the rights of indigenous communities and destroying pristine wilderness."

The hearing took place on the same day that questions were being asked in Parliament, RBS announced it was opening an office in Calgary that it said it would be an be an extension of its Houston practice and its oil and gas advisory in the United States.

Kevin Smith, from PLATFORM, co-author of the recently published ‘Cashing in on Tar Sands' report said:  "RBS is positioning itself to cash in on Albertan tar sands. MPs are asking questions about RBS using public money like this because UK citizens would be horrified to learn that their taxes are being used to facilitate the expansion of projects that cause such widespread ecological devastation against the wishes of First Nation communities."

Protests over RBS' involvement in tar sands financing are being planned by the World Development Movement and People & Planet to take place across the UK, including at RBS' Annual General Meeting that will take place on the 28th of April in Edinburgh.

Deborah Doane from the World Development Movement said: "We are planning protests up and down the UK because so much of our money is being used to provide finance for unsustainable tar sands extraction. These investments have a devastating impact on the lives of Indigenous communities in Canada, and are fuelling climate change, just to service the rich world's unquenchable thirst for dirty energy. The RBS decision to open a new office in Calgary to target the Albertan oil and gas market is yet more confirmation that our money is not being put where it should: towards socially useful and low carbon projects."

Clayton Thomas-Muller from the Indigenous Environmental Network said: "The concerns of First Nations peoples should not be taken lightly by RBS. Working with our partners in the UK, we will highlight how RBS is morally bankrupt in profiteering off the most destructive project on earth when we bring the tar sands issue to their shareholder meeting in April in Scotland."

 

 

NOTES

 

The announcement was made in the Calgary Herald on 10 March 2010. See here.

In February 2010, the report ‘Cashing in on Tar Sands - RBS, UK Banks and Canada's ‘Blood oil'' showed that RBS was the UK bank most heavily involved in underwriting corporate loans to companies involved in tar sands extraction. See here and here.

The Environmental Audit Committee hearing took place on 10 March 2010 in the House of Commons. The committee questioned Mr Robin Budenberg, Chief Executive and Mr Sam Woods, Chief Operating Officer, UK Financial Investments, the company set up to manage the public stake in recapitalized banks such as RBS and Mrs Lowri Khan, Director, Financial Stability, Mr Chris Martin, Director, Public Services and Environment and Mr David Lunn, Head of Financial Stability from Her Majesty's Treasury.

The full, uncorrected transcript of the hearing can be read here. 

see http://peopleandplanet.org/navid9620

 

 

 

Go to:
Start
Related Banks
Related Dodgy Deals

Related banks

NatWest Group United Kingdom

active
Go to:
Start
Related Banks
Related Dodgy Deals

Related Dodgy Deals

Projects

There are no projects active for this item now.
on record

Congo tar sands Congo

Oil and Gas Extraction
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