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Just been reading some papers online this morning and this particular article in the Times grabbed me.
Quote:
From The Sunday Times
November 11, 2007
Barclays bankrolls Mugabe’s brutal regime
Christopher Thompson, Jonathan Calvert and Jonathan Ungoed-Thomas
BARCLAYS is bankrolling President Robert Mugabe’s corrupt regime in Zimbabwe by providing substantial loans to cronies given land seized from white farmers.
The British bank lent £750m to the country’s new landowning elite in the first half of this year, mostly through a government scheme to boost farm productivity.
This weekend Barclays was under pressure to say whether it had lent money to five of Mugabe’s ministers — each named in European Union sanctions.
The Sunday Times has established that the five have received cash for their farms under the scheme to which Barclays is one of the main contributors.
They include Didymus Mutasa, the national security minister, who helped to orchestrate the controversial land-grab policy that left 4,000 white farmers without homes or livelihoods.
The country’s human rights abuses have made it an international pariah. Gordon Brown, the prime minister, has said he will boycott the EU-Africa summit in Lisbon next month if Mugabe remains on the guest list.
Despite the worldwide condemnation, Barclays, which faced criticism for operating in South Africa during the apartheid years, has remained one of only a handful of banks with extensive operations in Zimbabwe. It has recently been opening new branches in the country.
This weekend Norman Lamb, the Liberal Democrat MP who has a long-standing interest in African affairs, said he would ask David Miliband, the foreign secretary, to investigate whether the Barclays loans had breached EU sanctions. He said: “The loans sustain the regime and individuals within the regime and those who profited from the violent land-grab. It’s morally questionable.”
Many of the farms now funded by Barclays were forcibly taken by mobs organised by Mugabe’s Zanu-PF party. They were distributed to leading figures in the regime, even though the policy was intended to give farms to landless black Zimbabweans. The beneficiaries included Mugabe himself, who is said to have three estates.
The land-grab policy proved a disaster for agricultural production, turning the former bread basket of Africa into a country where many people are said to be on the brink of starvation.
To increase productivity, the government is now offering loans to farmers to buy machinery and supplies under a scheme called the Agricultural Sector Productivity Enhancement Facility (Aspef).
Barclays is required to finance the loans under Aspef as part of a set of conditions laid down by the Zimbabwean government which permit it to operate in the country, where it made £34m in profit last year. Its £750m Aspef loans are an increase of 17% on the previous year.
At least five ministers have received loans through Aspef. They are Sikhanyiso Ndlovu, minister of information and publicity; Patrick Chinamasa, minister of justice; Rugare Gumbo, minister of agriculture; Webster Shamu, minister for policy implementation; and Mutasa.
Ndlovu confirmed that ministerial colleagues and other party members were seeking the Aspef cash. “Yes, my colleagues applied and they should have received the funding,” he said.
The ministers are on a list of 131 regime figures who are blacklisted as a result of EU sanctions on Zimbabwe. The sanctions say: “No funds or economic resources shall be made available, directly or indirectly, to or for the benefit of people on the list].”
Barclays refused to confirm or deny whether the ministers or other blacklisted regime figures were its customers, on the basis of client confidentiality. The bank said it closely audited its Zimbabwe operations to ensure no sanctions were breached.
However, a source close to the bank said he had seen Shamu’s paperwork for a Barclays loan. Farmers take out loans with individual banks through Aspef. Among the other institutions which offer loans is Standard Chartered, a British bank, which also refused to say whether it loaned to regime members on the basis of client confidentiality..
Yesterday Zimbabwe opposition figures called for an investigation into how the Barclays funds had been spent. “Barclays is giving money to this regime and propping it up in an opaque process,” said Tendai Biti, secretary-general of the Movement for Democratic Change.
He said the agricultural loans were used as a “vehicle of personal wealth accumulation for the regime”.
Barclays’ dealings in Zimbabwe have angered former farmers who lost their land. Derrick Arlett-Johnson, who fled his farm in the Midlands province, said: “They’re loaning money to people who have taken something illegally. So in fact they are assisting in a crime, in my opinion.”
A spokeswoman for Barclays said the bank had operated in Zimbabwe since 1912 and had 1,000 employees and a network of 20 branches serving 150,000 retail, business and corporate customers in the country.
“We are committed to continuing to provide a service to those customers in what is clearly a difficult operating environment. We are also committed to the welfare of our employees,” she said.
Doesn't really surprise me in all honesty. Banks pretty much unscrupulous at the best of times, concerned only with turning a profit and to hell with the social and ethical implications of bankrolling a regime like this.
Doesn't really surprise me in all honesty. Banks pretty much unscrupulous at the best of times, concerned only with turning a profit and to hell with the social and ethical implications of bankrolling a regime like this.
Way to tar all banks with the same brush there greggory.
"[Barclays] remained one of only a handful of banks with extensive operations in Zimbabwe. "
Perhaps it just Barclays who make choice business decisions based on their pnl and perhaps not considering morality.
What do you think would happen if Barclays closed down all operations in Zimbabwe?
Sorry jules, didnt mean it to come across like that. I did actually change it but seems i posted the original bit and not the full one.
What i wanted to say was that it didn't surprise me due to their long term involvement which has been well publicised. With regards to the other bit, i meant to write how Some banks can be unscrupulous. For example, there are currently some European banks refusing to curtail their involvement in Iran which has been requested by the governments.
As for shutting down operations, i know it's not that simple. It would be incredibly naive to believe that would be the case. However, i do feel they really should have taken a decision to significantly scale down their operations in the same way that other banks have done and continue to do when situations like this occur.
If you need a bank that has ethics you should consider the Cooperative Bank. Ok, it conjours up images of savings stamps and women shopping in their slippers and rollers, but they do seem to be a 'nice' bank.
Basically what Serps said. The divestment campaign IMO did far more to bring down the South African apartheid regime than any government sanctions did.
Refuse to do business with Barclays and tell them it's because of their Zimbabwe dealings.
Barclays bankrolls Mugabe’s brutal regime 
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