24 October 2026 AA-MOC press release: Disarm your money! 20 years against the arms trade.
Valencia, Painter Sorolla Street, 2 April 2026.
DISARM YOUR MONEY!
Against a backdrop of growing rearmament and remilitarisation worldwide, with over 130 armed conflicts – 50 of which are high-intensity – military spending rising at a dizzying rate and the threat of the return of compulsory military service in various regions of the globe, it is essential to highlight the active role played by financial institutions in this complex military-industrial-financial system.
For this reason, and to mark the 20th anniversary of the launch of the campaign to expose the responsibility of banks in financing the manufacture of weapons used in the wars and armed conflicts ravaging the world, activists from the Platform Against Armed Banking have taken to the streets in a coordinated manner in Barcelona, Bilbao, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Pamplona and Valencia to highlight Banco Santander’s links with the arms industry.
Weapons do not appear on the battlefield of their own accord. Behind their manufacture and sale lies a financial structure that provides loans, investments and other resources to arms companies. For all these reasons, we denounce the responsibility of those who enable and profit from the business of war.
Santander Bank leads the way in investment in military companies, in those developing nuclear weapons and in those profiting from the genocide in Gaza.
In 2025, Santander topped the Spanish rankings for arms financing and ranked 22nd internationally. During the period 2022–2024, the bank invested more than 2,868 million dollars in arms manufacturers. At the same time, it reported profits of 14,101 million euros, a record high for the Spanish banking sector.
In addition to its role as a financier of the arms industry, according to a 2025 report by “Don’t Bank on the Bomb”, Santander Bank contributes to global military escalation by channelling $4,527 million to companies involved in the development and modernisation of nuclear weapons.
And as if all this were not serious enough, as detailed in the report The Armed Banking Sector and its Shared Responsibility for the Genocide in Gaza, published by the Centre Delàs in 2024, between 2022 and 2024, Santander Bank provided at least $2,442 million in funding to arms manufacturers that produce and supply weapons to the Israeli army – weapons that have been proven to have been used in Israel’s genocide against the Palestinian people.
Do not collaborate with the Armed Banking! Switch to ethical and solidarity-based financial alternatives.
Through these actions at Santander branches, we are forming a queue of people approaching the bank to close their accounts and withdraw their savings, because they refuse to allow their money to be used to finance the production of weapons intended for use in wars and in the genocide against the Palestinian population.
Finally, we invite the public to find out what their bank is financing, to withdraw their money from Armed Banking and to opt for ethical banking and solidarity-based finance alternatives. Because our money must not finance war or genocide!
More info: https://bancaarmada.org/en
