Barclays bank is coming under mounting pressure to pay millions of pounds in reparations as fresh allegations suggest that banks it has taken over were founded on profits made from slavery. New evidence prompted leading black American campaigners to write to senior Barclays officials last week demanding meetings over the issue.
Barclays, which is trying to buy Dutch Bank Amro, has now conceded companies it bought over the years may have been involved in the slave trade. But it said board members had not discussed the issue and a spokesman would not be drawn on whether they would do so soon.
The New York-based Restitution Study Group has uncovered evidence that two prominent slave trading bankers, Benjamin and Arthur Heywood from Liverpool, founded Heywoods Bank in 1773 on profits from the slave trade. Heywoods was taken over by Martins Bank in 1883 which itself was bought by Barclays in 1968.
Read More at the Guardian.
Restitution Study Group 
Reblogged this on DELIRIUM AFRICA.
LikeLike