The way some banks have behaved recently does not make me feel great about where I keep my money. The recurring stories of excessive bonuses, dubious tax avoidance schemes, fiddling interest rates, support for arms trade, oil, fracking or other dodgy bank deals have made me think about alternatives. Under the mattress is not really a practical option so I have been looking into ethical banking and been pleasantly surprised by what I have found out.
This is a profitable and growing organisation, the 25 banks in the Global Alliance for Banking on Values are independent, licensed financial institutions with combined assets of approximately $100 billion. Together they touch the lives of more than 20 million people in 30 countries. While many of their mainstream contemporaries have been hit hard by the financial crisis, this network of progressive banks have largely flourished during it. They share a commitment to build a more sustainable future and have developed effective ways to deliver it.
In the UK Triodos Bank and The Ecology Building Society are part of GABV but the smaller Charity Bank also upholds these sort of ethical values.
Move Your Money UK is a growing movement of ordinary people who are fed up with British banks and want to build a better banking sector. In September 2013 Move Your Money did a survey and found that the areas of banking that mattered most to the public were Honesty, Customer Service, Culture, Impact on the Real Economy and Ethics. They released a Bank Ranking Scorecard to answer some of these questions.
Each bank and building society is given a score out of 100 and ranked accordingly. They have been given a Red (leave/don’t switch here), Amber (doing better) or Green (best-rated banks, switch here if you can) rating to help people decide on a better bank. If you can’t see the chart clearly the full article and criteria are here.
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