New evidence has been uncovered to show that Dexia, a major Belgian-French bank, is still financing Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories despite official assurances that such loans have ceased. IPS reports that shareholders confronted company management at its AGM in Brussels this week and caught company executives off guard.
This Franco-Belgian bank is a leader in municipal finance in Europe, with the majority of the market in Belgium and almost half in France. Subsidiary Dexia Crediop is a prominent local government finance company in Italy. Dexia Group also offers retail banking through nearly 1,100 branches in Belgium and Luxembourg and provides asset management, insurance and fund administration services.
As noted by the Israeli NGO, Who Profits? ” the bank announced in June 2009 that financing Israeli settlements is contrary to the bank’s code of ethics, and that it would stop providing new loans to West Bank settlements.”
