NZ Super Fund outed for failing to exclude nuclear weapon delivery makers

The New Zealand Superannuation Fund does not exclude investments in companies which make delivery systems for nuclear weapons, according to a global report. Photo/Supplied.

The $30 billion New Zealand Superannuation Fund can't rule out whether it has any money invested in companies which make the delivery systems for nuclear weapons after it was outed in a global report.

The Don't Bank on the Bomb report analysed hundreds of financial institutions and their policies on nuclear investment.

It found that while the NZ Super Fund excludes all companies involved in the manufacture and testing of nuclear explosive devices it does not exclude companies that
are involved in the production of all specifically designed nuclear weapons delivery systems.

The report also found that some of the money invested by the fund in two pooled hedge fund mandates was not included in its exclusion policy.

A spokeswoman for the fund which was set up in 2003 to help pay for the future costs of superannuation in New Zealand, said the boundaries for its investment policy were consistent with New Zealand's legislation.

"We draw the boundary consistently with legislation."

The Nuclear Free Zone, Disarmament and Arms Control Act of 1987 defines a nuclear device as "any nuclear weapon or other explosive device capable of releasing nuclear energy, irrespective of the purpose for which it could be used, whether assembled, partly assembled, or unassembled, but does not include the means of transport or delivery of such a weapon or device if separable from and not an indivisible part of it."

"On this basis we do not believe that companies that are involved in delivery and control systems can be considered companies that produce nuclear weapons, and therefore they are not excluded from the Fund."

Asked if the fund had any investments in companies which make the delivery systems for nuclear weapons the spokeswoman said it did not track that because it was not excluded from its investment policy.

She said the exclusion policy could not apply to the pooled hedge funds as the money was pooled.

"You can't apply exclusions to pooled funds."

But she said the NZ Super Fund took its exclusions into account when deciding which pooled investment to put its money into and whether excluded companies were likely to appear in those funds.

"We don't think there is a significant risk. We haven't identified any investments [on the exclusion list]."

"We do monitor it."

The report recommended the NZ Super Fund exclude all nuclear weapons producing companies involved in all delivery systems specifically designed for nuclear weapons and said it should extend its exclusion policy to all financial products, including assets in pooled hedge fund mandates.

In total the report found US$498 billion was made available to nuclear weapon producing companies by the investors listed in the report.

Those investments came from 390 financial institutions spanning 26 countries.

The top 10 investors provided more than $214 billion to nuclear weapon makers and all of the top 10 are based in America.

The top three companies were Blackrock, Capital Group and Vanguard which combined invested $89 billion.

It was not all bad news. Of those analysed 18 financial institutions were found to have comprehensive exclusion policies and were named in a "Hall of Fame".

A further 36 institutions, including New Zealand's NZ Super Fund were named as runners-up and were recognised for taking the step to exclude nuclear producers from their investments but did not have all-inclusive policies preventing all types of financial involvement with nuclear weapon companies.