JP Morgan Chase
In the 3 years since the Paris Agreement, $1.9 trillion worth of finance was provided by banks for fossil fuel projects. No single bank has provided more of this financing than JP Morgan Chase, who put up $195 billion worth of fossil fuel finance during this time period.
World’s Worst Banker?
JP Morgan are the leading global banker of Ultradeepwater Oil and Gas, Liquified Natural Gas (LNG), the #2 banker of Fracking and the #3 banker of The Canadian Tar Sands. Whilst they were the leading banker of arctic oil and gas, they have announced an end to financing arctic drilling following years of campaigning led by the climate groups and Indigenous communities, most prominently the Gwich’in Nation. A complete halt to these other destructive investments awaits.
These figures, whilst startling, are perhaps unsurprising given that until 2020, Evil Overlord and ex-CEO of Exxon Mobil Lee Raymond was a lead director at JP Morgan Chase (he is now merely a director). Whilst Raymond is clearly an awful human being, you may question whether a lesser role for Raymond constitutes a serious culture shift. Perhaps not, as recently JP Morgan have financed Crude Amazon oil and the Keystone XL pipeline. However, CEO Jamie Dimon did take the knee (outside a vault of money) as a response to the demands for racial justice raised by Black Lives Matter. A jolly anti-racism performance to gain PR wins, whilst simultaneously financing racist projects.
JP Morgan in Glasgow and the UK
JP Morgan Chase have been based in Glasgow since 1999. They are expanding, as they also plan to build new Argyle Street offices within Glasgow’s International Finance district, a decision welcomed by both Nicola Sturgeon and the leader of Glasgow City Council, Susan Aitken. As is customary in corporate greenwashing, their press release wants you to know that their new offices are very fuel efficient. Oddly, JP Morgan – a US Multinational Bank – also sits on Glasgow City Council’s Covid-19 economic recovery group. One would think that a bank recently implicated (again) in money laundering and corruption scandals would be unfit to play such a role, but then we’re not trying to turn Glasgow into a city for International Finance.
JP Morgan also supports the fracking of shale gas and when then government minister Claire Perry hosted a 2018 roundtable on Shale Gas, which led to a relaxation of regulations in the UK around shale gas, JP Morgan were present at the roundtable. We would not suspect that the world’s #2 banker of fracked gas were arguing for a reduction in extraction.
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Worst Polluter in a Supporting Role