Fiduciary duty trumps ethics for weapons investors

Human rights issues at stake

The weapons industry saw a boom in sales during the pandemic. For fund managers invested in the space, "fiduciary duty" may outweigh ethics, but some commentators have warned that investors in plain vanilla passive funds are unaware they even own arms companies.

According to data from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, published in December, sales of weapons and military services by the industry's largest 100 firms totalled $531bn in 2020 - 17% higher than 2015. Major players in the weapons manufacturing space were "largely shieldedby sustained government demand for military goods and services", according to Alexandra Marksteiner, a researcher with the SIPRI Military Expenditure and Arms Production Programme. "In much of the world, military spending grew and some governments even accelerated payments to the arms industry in or...