Report 71: Bank trading in global militarism. Armed banking · 2025 ranking

The close ties between major arms companies in Europe’s current rearmament phase and some of the world’s (and Spain’s) largest banks reveal a stable, mutually beneficial relationship in which these banks become indispensable partners to the military industry, with arms production wholly dependent on their financing. The symbiosis between arms production and financial support has created a military-industrial financial complex that benefits from a context in which EU institutions and national governments of member states entrust the continent’s security to military means, all the while accumulating hundreds of billions of euros in profits. How much of the €800 billion proposed to “ReArm” Europe will turn into dividends for the shareholders of arms companies and the banks that finance them?

This report draws up a new armed banking ranking for 2025, based on data from 11,738 financial transactions involving some of the most important Spanish arms companies, along with their European and US parent companies. The result: $279.331 billion channelled from banks to arms companies, mainly between 2022 and 2024.

Authors: Jordi Calvo and Max Carbonell

Read and download i the executive summary in English, in Catalan and in Spanish, and the full report in English and in Spanish (soon available in Catalan).