Towards Ethical Banking

This ethical approach to banking, has been an inspiration for many of the European social banks which have gradually developed over the last few decades.

Notwithstanding cultural differences, variety in size, accents (social, environmental), products and services, and stage of development, all of them have ethical and sustainable development elements at the core of their mission, ambitions and practices. All of them are making a good case for human and social development while offering both generally and specifically designed products and services to their respective markets. Whilst a few have failed, most of them have found their way of continuity, with different models of functioning, whilst being in conformity with general banking regulations. An overview of those successful institutions that have a banking statute are:

• ShoreBank, (1973), USA

• GLS Bank, (1974), Germany

• Triodos Bank, (1980), The Netherlands with branches in Belgium, United

• Kingdom, Spain and Germany

• Freie Gemeinschaftsbank in der Schweiz, (1984), Switzerland

• Merkur Bank, (1985), Denmark

• Wainwright Bank and Trust Cy, (1987), USA

• Alternative Bank Schweiz, (1990), Switzerland

• Cultura Sparebank, (1997), Norway

• Ekobanken, (1998), Sweden

• Banca Popolare Etica, (1998), Italy

• Charity Bank, (2002), United Kingdom.


Some social banks have been constituted by trade unions and have developed based on social and ethical criteria:

• ASN Bank (1960), The Netherlands

• Caisse d´Economie solidaire Desjardins (1971), Canada

• Unity Trust Bank (1984), United Kingdom.


Other social banks are focusing on some specific market segments:

• Health and social economy – Bank für Sozialwirtschaft, created in 1923 on behalf of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and originally serving as the central administration for UN funding in Germany

• Environment – Umweltbank (1995) in Germany, and the New Resource Bank (2006) in the USA

These banks are quite different as to the volume of their operations – balance sheet totals vary from EUR 30 million to several billions, and their financing capacity from EUR 50,000 to EUR 25 million per project. All together they are currently financing tens of thousands of projects with added social value mobilising the savings of more than one million people and institutions. Being still relatively small, these banking on values institutions, have substantial growth rates, are professionalising and consider themselves to be catalysts for social change. With these banks also succeeding in applying outstanding internal organisation and staffing practices, and in developing specific methodologies to properly deal with the ethical aspects of this type, they have a potential for further qualitative development.

Trueventus will be organising this event in October. To download the brochure, please go to:


http://www.trueventusmalaysia.com/bank/EBD.pdf


For more information, please email to DillonY@trueventus.com