Investing in Myanmar Military cartel

More than two years after the coup in Myanmar, and amid the military’s repeated grave violations of international human rights and humanitarian law, several major players in France’s finance sector continue to invest in companies that are directly linked with Myanmar’s military. Some of the links between the investment of a number of French internationally operating banks and Myanmar’s military were already exposed in 2021 by BankTrack and Justice For Myanmar. In 2023, our organisations updated this data and conducted additional research on ongoing investment by French financial institutions in companies that are linked to the Myanmar junta and its atrocities.

Key findings

• Five private French financial groups – Crédit Agricole, Groupe BPCE, BNP Paribas, La Banque Postale, Société Générale – and a public fund – Fonds de Réserve pour les Retraites – invest more than 6 billion USD in companies linked to the Myanmar military cartel. More than 75% of these investments are related to fossil fuels.
• Crédit Agricole accounts for 4 billion USD of these investments, including investment in arms companies and companies that produce dual technology goods in the telecommunications sector for surveillance purposes.
• The Fonds de réserve pour les retraites, a public fund, has more than 29 million USD of investments in these companies, of which more than 20% concern private companies carrying out telecommunications surveillance for the military junta.

Download full report.