HSBC Holdings plc

HSBC states that it 'has operated with a full banking licence in Israel since 2001', providing corporate and institutional banking products and services to international Israeli corporates, institutions and multinational companies, with private banking through HSBC Private Bank (Suisse) SA. Through HSBC Innovation Banking it helps Israeli high-tech firms access international opportunities and supports Israeli entrepreneurs abroad. The branch is at Amot Atrium Tower, 30th floor, 2 Jabotinsky Street, Ramat Gan 5250501. Page checked 6 August 2026.

The most useful published summary of HSBC's position, updated 21 July 2026. Records HSBC as thirteenth largest European creditor and ninth largest European investor across the companies screened, and fourth largest European creditor and eighth largest European investor in settlement-linked companies specifically, drawing on Don't Buy Into Occupation V of November 2025 on data covering January 2023 to August 2025. Separately places HSBC 45th of the top 100 international banks financing arms companies with Gaza-linked exports, on the Armed Banking research of October 2024. Names Boeing, General Dynamics, Leonardo, Lockheed Martin, Rolls-Royce and RTX among the defence holdings, notes that HSBC has no formal weapons or military restriction beyond controversial weapons exclusions, and records that HSBC held Elbit shares again by September 2020 after its 2018 divestment.

HSBC Holdings plc does not appear among Elbit Systems' disclosed institutional holders in the reports for the first or second quarters of 2026. The exit followed a rebuilt position of 16,317 shares, worth about 8.3 million dollars, in the third quarter of 2025, itself a 27% increase on 12,826 shares held the previous quarter, which was then cut to 651 shares and finally to nil. Corroborates that the current Elbit position is nil while showing how quickly the same position was rebuilt after the 2018 divestment.

Poll results for the AGM of 8 May 2026. Every board-proposed resolution passed, the report and accounts on 99.25% and the remuneration report on 96.57%, with director elections between 91.94% and 99.62%. The only shareholder-requisitioned resolutions were two Midland Clawback Campaign items concerning Midland Bank pensions, defeated with 96.08% and 95.98% against. No Palestine-related or arms-financing resolution reached the ballot, which is the gap an institutional campaign would have to fill.

Policy inventory for HSBC, last updated 24 April 2026. Dates the Defence Equipment Policy Statement to June 2024, the Human Rights and Modern Slavery statements to February 2026, and the Sustainability Risk Policies Framework to November 2025, and lists the fifteen-plus voluntary standards HSBC has signed. Useful for establishing which policy version applies at a given date, and for confirming that the defence policy has not been revised since June 2024.

The bank's reported US portfolio at 31 March 2026 shows no position in Elbit Systems, and continuing positions of about 644 million dollars in Caterpillar, 488 million in RTX, 274 million in Boeing and 235 million in General Dynamics, against a reported portfolio of roughly 192 billion dollars. These are quarterly holdings reports covering securities over which the group has investment discretion. They aggregate asset management, market-making inventory and client-directed positions, and HSBC has told campaigners it holds shares in arms companies on behalf of clients. They are not the bank's own balance-sheet lending, which is what its Defence Equipment Policy Statement governs.

The current version, approved by the HSBC Holdings Board, which reviews the group's approach to human rights at least once a year. HSBC states it is guided by the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and is a signatory to or supporter of the UN Global Compact, the OECD Guidelines, the UN Principles for Responsible Investment and the UN Principles for Sustainable Insurance, and identifies its potential impact 'as an employer, a provider of financial services, a buyer of goods and services and an investor'. Investments are dealt with in one paragraph: HSBC Asset Management 'uses available data to monitor certain investments for involvement in controversies which may include potential breaches of the UN Global Compact principles', where 'enhanced due diligence is undertaken which may lead to escalation such as company engagement or divestment activity'. The statement contains no heightened human rights due diligence provision for conflict-affected areas and no reference to Israel or the occupied Palestinian territory.

Reported profit before tax of 29.907 billion dollars for 2025, down 2.4 billion on 2024; profit after tax 23.131 billion; revenue 68.274 billion; total assets 3,233,034 million dollars at 31 December 2025; customer accounts 1,786,828 million; common equity tier 1 ratio 14.9%. The group targets a return on tangible equity of 17% or better for 2026 to 2028 and has paused buy-backs until the CET1 ratio is back within its 14 to 14.5% range. Establishes the scale against which any Israel-related exposure has to be measured, and that none of it is financially material to the group.

HSBC announced on 3 December 2025 that Brendan Nelson would become permanent Group Chair, having served as interim chair since 1 October 2025 following Sir Mark Tucker's departure to chair AIA. The announcement came a day after the Group Chief Executive had indicated Nelson was reluctant to commit to a full six-to-nine-year tenure, and after what the bank called a robust process considering internal and external candidates. Establishes an unusually short-horizon chairmanship at the top of the board that approves the Human Rights Statement.

The UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the OPT concludes that Israeli authorities and security forces 'have committed and are continuing to commit' the actus reus of genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip (para. 252), and that Israel 'bears responsibility for the failure to prevent genocide, the commission of genocide and the failure to punish genocide' (para. 255). Covers Gaza, 7 October 2023 to 31 July 2025.

Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, finding that 'corporate entities have profited from the Israeli economy of illegal occupation, apartheid and now genocide' and that 'corporate entities directly linked to human rights impacts must exercise leverage or consider termination of their activities or relationships'. Directly applicable to banks financing Israeli infrastructure and arms manufacturers.

Celine Herweijer left as Chief Sustainability Officer on 31 December 2024, after the October 2024 restructuring removed the role from HSBC's executive committee. Julian Wentzel, then head of global banking for the Middle East, North Africa and Turkey, took the role on an interim basis from 1 January 2025, reporting to Group Chief Financial Officer Pam Kaur while a permanent replacement was recruited. Establishes that the function responsible for applying the defence and human rights policies no longer sits at the top executive table.

The fourth edition of the DBIO coalition's screen, identifying HSBC among the largest European creditors by lending and underwriting volume to companies involved in illegal Israeli settlement activities, on data covering January 2021 to August 2024. Superseded by the fifth edition of 25 November 2025, which covers January 2023 to August 2025 and screens 104 businesses; retained here because it establishes that HSBC's creditor position is not a one-off reading of a single year.

The International Court of Justice found Israel's continued presence in the occupied Palestinian territory unlawful, held settlements and their associated economic activity contrary to international law, and set out obligations on states in relation to trade and dealings with settlements. The legal framework on which institutional exclusion, procurement and lending decisions rest.

The document the campaign turns on. HSBC states that it 'has long held a restricted appetite for the defence sector', which 'prohibits the financing and provision of advisory services to clients which manufacture, trade, purchase or sell weapons for military use'. The list of weapons for military use opens with 'conventional weapons' and runs through anti-personnel mines, cluster munitions, depleted uranium munitions, lethal autonomous weapons systems, incendiary weapons and white phosphorous munitions. The scope is set by the footnotes. HSBC defines 'finance' as 'the provision of project finance, direct lending, or arranging or underwriting capital markets transactions for clients', and 'advisory services' as financial or investment banking advisory services; the policy 'applies to clients that are corporate entities (including state-owned enterprises)' and 'remains subject to compliance with local laws and regulations'. Shareholdings, market-making, client-directed trades, funds managed for clients and sovereign customers are all outside it.

Financial close on 4 July 2023 on 1 billion euros of financing from HSBC and Bank Leumi to the consortium of Israel's Shapir Group and Spain's CAF for the 29km, 46-station Purple Line running from Yehud and Kiryat Ono through Ramat Gan and Givatayim into central Tel Aviv, projected to carry about 256,000 passengers a day. The financing was classified as green financing. Israel's then Transport Minister Miri Regev said it was 'encouraging to see that during these days leading international financial entities have found the Gush Dan light rail to be a reliable and stable long-term project'. The route lies inside Israel, not in the occupied territories; this is state infrastructure financing, not settlement financing.

War on Want's own account of the December 2018 divestment, following roughly a year of campaigning that included branch pickets and mass emails. Notes that HSBC had long claimed its involvement with Elbit was on behalf of clients, and that the bank retained relationships with other companies supplying the Israeli military, naming Caterpillar and BAE Systems. Establishes both that campaigning moved the bank and that the campaigners themselves treated the outcome as partial.

Contemporaneous news coverage of the December 2018 divestment, following pressure from human rights campaigners. HSBC cited its cluster munitions policy rather than any position on Israel. Retained from the earlier version of this profile; the URL has not been re-verified in this refresh.

Records that on 23 December 2018 HSBC confirmed to campaigners by email that it had fully divested from Elbit Systems, and refers to the bank's Defence Equipment Sector Policy on cluster munitions as the stated basis. No HSBC statement is quoted beyond the confirmation itself. The bank did not adopt any position on Israel, and the divestment carried no commitment not to buy the shares back, which is what happened.

Account of the HSBC annual general meeting of 20 April 2018, at which more than a quarter of questions concerned the bank's involvement with companies supplying weapons to Israel. Records the 831 million pound shareholding and 19.3 billion pound syndicated lending figures, HSBC's holding in Elbit Systems, which produces cannons to fire cluster munitions that Israel ordered as recently as August 2017, more than 18,000 letters to the then Group Chief Executive, and regular pickets at more than 20 branches. The clearest record of what the pre-divestment campaign actually consisted of.

The origin of the figures that have circulated on HSBC ever since, published 1 July 2017. Reported that HSBC held shares worth more than 831 million pounds in companies selling weapons and military equipment to Israel and was involved in syndicated loans worth at least 19.3 billion pounds to the same companies. These are 2017 figures and should be cited as such; they are not current, and the current position is set out in the holdings reports above. The report triggered the campaign that produced the December 2018 Elbit divestment.