Dissatisfied Malaysian customers today presented HSBC with a mock cheque to the value of 228,434 signatures urging the bank to “Stop Funding Forest Fires in Indonesia”.

The HSBC customers were joined by activists from Greenpeace and other Malaysian civil society organizations, including members of Pertubuhan Pelindung Khazanah Alam Malaysia (PEKA), who handed out leaflets to other customers and passersby at the bank’s head office in Kuala Lumpur.

The activity was part of an escalating global effort to highlight the involvement of Europe’s largest bank in arranging US$16.3 billion of loans (and nearly US$2 billion of bonds) to companies whose Indonesian palm oil operations have destroyed vast areas of rainforest, peatland and orangutan habitat, seized land from local people, operated without legal permits, and caused forest fires.

“We are asking customers to join this movement urging HSBC to stop funding deforestation. In the past five years alone, HSBC has been part of banking syndicates that arranged US$ 16.3 billion of loans to six companies whose palm oil operations have destroyed vast areas of rainforest, peatland and orangutan habitat in Indonesia,” said Octyanto Bagus Indra Kusuma, Greenpeace Southeast Asia Forest Campaigner.

Greenpeace International’s recently published ‘Dirty Bankers’ report documents loans and financial services from HSBC to palm oil companies responsible for:

• Destroying rainforest, including orangutan habitat
• Seizing land from local people
• Operating without legal permits
• Abusing workers and using child labour
• Forest fires
• Draining and developing carbon-rich peatland

Deforestation and peatland destruction by Indonesia’s palm oil and pulp sectors is widely acknowledged as a root cause of forest fires and haze. A study by Harvard and Columbia universities estimates that over 100,000 adults across Southeast Asia died prematurely as a result of the 2015 haze crisis.

Many of these actions breach the laws and regulations that govern Indonesia’s plantation sector. Lending to these companies also breaches HSBC’s sustainability policies. The financial support provided by HSBC and other international banks contrasts sharply with public opinion and consumer companies demanding responsibly produced palm oil.

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Greenpeace Southeast Asia