Barclays and JBS: A Long-Term Relationship

Barclays bank, a household name in the UK with over 48 million customers worldwide, is the bank of choice for one of the world’s most destructive companies – the biggest global meat corporation, JBS.

From 2015 to 2022, Barclays was the world’s largest identified creditor to JBS, providing more corporate loans, bond issuances and revolving credit facilities to JBS and its subsidiaries than any other financial institution globally, totally a staggering US$6.7 billion in financing during this period.

JBS has a rich and well-documented history of illegality, including fraud, corruption, proceeds of crime, illegal deforestation, and modern slavery.

So why does Barclays keep on financing them?

Dodgy Dealings

In October 2025, Mighty Earth filed a formal complaint with UK regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), calling for an investigation into potential fraud and greenwashing by Barclays in underwriting $3 billion of Sustainability-Linked Bonds (SLBs) issued by meat giant JBS.

Sustainability Linked Bonds can be misused in two key ways. Firstly, the issuer, can profit from the lower interest rates attached to SLBs due to their sustainability credentials. In the case of JBS, they have secured financing from Barclays on these SLBs without a published transition plan that shows how the ‘sustainability’ aspect of these bonds will be delivered. Secondly, both the issuer and financier benefit from positioning themselves as ‘green’ through such a deal, when in reality these bonds are underpinned by bogus, fraudulent sustainability claims from JBS.