The Swiss National Bank revealed on January 16 its decision to divest from companies whose practices are ethically dubious. Those include companies which "produce internationally outlawed weapons, that massively violate fundamental human rights or that are responsible for systematic serious environmental damage”.
While the names of the companies were not made public, the SNB decision comes while the bank previously owned equities in US companies that produce weapons, nuclear weapons, and sub-munitions.
The SNB position will need to receive more attention in the future both on the arms trade financing and on other no less significant domains, such as human rights and environmental protection. There is also a need to look at how other financial institutions, worldwide and in Switzerland will react to this ethical (or at least legal) turnaround undertaken by the Swiss National Bank, an important actor in public and private finance.
APRED has been dessiminating for a while the « Dont bank the bomb » report, that provides information on the part the banks, including Swiss banks take in financing nuclear weapons,.

The Swiss National Bank divests from companies involved in ethically dubious practices, including nuclear weapons (Press release Swissinfo)