A Colombian NGO has challenged BNP Paribas over its due diligence regarding its exposure and support for Glencore. Reclaim Finance was asked to comment. BNP Paribas responded and stated that it was not exposed to Glencore. Here is Reclaim Finance’s perspective.
On Thursday, May 25th, a radio story and article were published by Radio France (1) about the decision by a Colombian NGO to “mettre en demeure” [serve notice to] BNP Paribas, Crédit Agricole and BPCE for their support for the Swiss mining giant Glencore.
In this article, data from Banking on Climate Chaos (April 12th, 2023) (2) and Investing in Climate Chaos (April 20th, 2023) (3) were cited. The data notably featured a US$ 6.54 billion loan dating from March 2022 to Glencore International, a subsidiary of Glencore PLC, as displayed on the Bloomberg Terminal – which showed BNP Paribas’ involvement, along with 28 global banks.
Over the last few days, it has become clear to Reclaim Finance that this mention on the Bloomberg Terminal until at least May 26th was inaccurate and that BNP Paribas was actually not involved in the reported operation. The relevant modifications in that regard have obviously been integrated to the Banking on Climate Chaos dataset accessible online.
As a reminder, the Bloomberg Terminal is one of the world’s largest providers of finance data and is used by all international financial institutions and other stakeholders in the financial sector.
Following the publication of the article mentioned above:
- BNP Paribas notified Reclaim Finance that the data was not correct. It said that “BNP Paribas Asset Management does not directly or indirectly hold any securities of this company in the funds it manages” and “BNP Paribas no longer has a banking relationship with the company cited by the NGO and no credit was granted to it in 2022”.
- The bank contacted the press with similar information, which appears in the article (1).
- BNP Paribas contacted the Bloomberg Terminal and had its name removed from the list of involved participants in the loan (revolving credit facility) made to Glencore International. The Bloomberg Helpdesk confirmed that BNP Paribas was removed from the deal on May 26, 2023, the same day that the bank contacted Reclaim Finance.
Before the publication of Radio France’s article, a comprehensive and granular set of all the operations attributed to BNPP as per the Bloomberg Terminal’s indications, including data on the loan made to Glencore International, was shared with BNP Paribas twice by Reclaim Finance.
- Data was first shared with BNP Paribas in early March 2023, as part of the Banking on Climate Chaos data validation process, ahead of the publication of the report. An updated dataset was shared with them again in early April.
- BNP Paribas was thus explicitly given the opportunity to discuss and challenge the data communicated via this detailed spreadsheet, and took it by sharing overall comments with Reclaim Finance. However, the bank did not make any specific comment at any point regarding the estimated US$46.4 million involvement in this loan to Glencore International.
- The data was featured on the report’s website (2) from the publication of the report on April 12th, 2023. It has now been removed from the public dataset available on the website.
- BNP Paribas did not highlight any issue thereafter with the reference to the loan made to Glencore International.
- In general terms, BNP Paribas’ coal policy does not strictly exclude financial services for companies such as Glencore or many of its subsidiaries, including Glencore International (4).
Data retrieved from Refinitiv, another industry-standard finance database, on June 1st 2023 (with various filling dates) show that BNP Paribas Group remains a shareholder in Glencore PLC through various funds.
However, the most recent data accessible on Bloomberg Terminal shows that, as of June 1st, 2023, a large portion (>99%) of BNP Paribas’ investment exposure, initially retrieved from Bloomberg Terminal on May 30th, 2023, appears to have been removed.
Then, it might be that, as of today, BNP Paribas, as an investor, is not anymore exposed – other than marginally – to Glencore PLC. Reclaim Finance will closely follow the evolution of the relevant data in future filings on the mentioned databases, so as to confirm the information and update this publication accordingly.
This case raises important questions about the transparency of the finance sector and the challenges posed by data accuracy, even when relying on the most up-to-date and comprehensive data providers. Financial institutions, and data providers, would therefore benefit from greater transparency in their processes. Yet, from Reclaim Finance’s understanding, BNP Paribas is no longer supporting Glencore, which is a welcome commitment that the NGO will follow closely. Reclaim Finance calls on BNP Paribas to review its coal policy so that it strictly and explicitly rules out companies such as Glencore.
