Ethical banks in UK

andyjthornton

Hi there,

Is there an ethical bank in the UK that offers your standard sort of banking services? I know Triodos offer some banking services, but I think they just do longer term savings. Is there a bank that offers a standard current account (debit card, instant access to your money ... the standard sort of thing).

Cheers,
Andy

badger09

andyjthornton wrote: »

Hi there,

Is there an ethical bank in the UK that offers your standard sort of banking services? I know Triodos offer some banking services, but I think they just do longer term savings. Is there a bank that offers a standard current account (debit card, instant access to your money ... the standard sort of thing).

Cheers,
Andy

Depends on exactly what you mean by 'Ethical' What about The Co-operative?

http://www.goodwithmoney.co.uk/ethical-banking/

andyjthornton

Hmmm. What do I mean by ethical? Tricky, I guess I know it by its absence in the current banking system.

I would like a bank that doesn't lend money to organizations unless they have a fairly social objective. That might be tricky, but definitely I don't want them to lend to arms manufacturers and senseless polluters but rather to green technologies, local farmers etc.

I want them to pay their employees a liveable wage.

I want the CEO and the rest of the board to have a total compensation package that is not excessively bigger than the guy who cleans the toilets. That figure may be 30 times (which some might argue is excessive) but it should be 300 times.

They should (proudly) pay their taxes. No setting up their headquarters in a tax haven or the myriad of other tricks that companies use to dodge tax. Maybe we call this the JK Rowling approach!

Their customers and stakeholders should be the owners of the organization (or at the very least I think I would rather they were not a public company)

Profits should be minimized. It should be run as a low profit enterprise.

That seems like a reasonable start of wishes, but I suspect I will be selecting a bank that comes close, as I doubt any tick all of these boxes.

I was asking on the Occupy chat forum and the Co-op came up, but some people indicated they are not as nice as they seem. Maybe they are the least worst?

forgotmyname

Flying pigs and clouds of cuckoo's spring to mind.

They are there for one reason, To make a profit.

Whether thats lending money to startup an arms factory or for the safe storage of funds from the
militant wing of the vicars tea party organisation.

Pay taxes, If they do i bet they claim it all back with threats to move all their services abroad.


All much of a muchness.

zeupater

andyjthornton wrote: »

Hmmm. What do I mean by ethical? Tricky, I guess I know it by its absence in the current banking system.

I would like a bank that doesn't lend money to organizations unless they have a fairly social objective. That might be tricky, but definitely I don't want them to lend to arms manufacturers and senseless polluters but rather to green technologies, local farmers etc.

I want them to pay their employees a liveable wage.

I want the CEO and the rest of the board to have a total compensation package that is not excessively bigger than the guy who cleans the toilets. That figure may be 30 times (which some might argue is excessive) but it should be 300 times.

They should (proudly) pay their taxes. No setting up their headquarters in a tax haven or the myriad of other tricks that companies use to dodge tax. Maybe we call this the JK Rowling approach!

Their customers and stakeholders should be the owners of the organization (or at the very least I think I would rather they were not a public company)

Profits should be minimized. It should be run as a low profit enterprise.

That seems like a reasonable start of wishes, but I suspect I will be selecting a bank that comes close, as I doubt any tick all of these boxes.

I was asking on the Occupy chat forum and the Co-op came up, but some people indicated they are not as nice as they seem. Maybe they are the least worst?

Hi

Looks like you're describing an old fashioned local mutual building society then ....

There are still a few around ...

HTH
Z

bohemia

I think the Co-op are probably the least offensive in terms of ethics of the banks around. I'm just basing that on their advertising though; can't speak from experience!

andyjthornton

Cheers. Yeah, seems like co-op is at least preferable to my current high street bank.

competitionscafe

There is a table here which may help:
http://www.ethicalconsumer.org/BuyersGuides/Money/BankingCurrentAccounts.aspx

Norwich and Peterborough came top (Now merged with Yorkshire Building Society).

Even the Nationwide directors (paid up to £1.5 million a year) probably earn at least 100 times what their lowest paid employees do, so it's not just the banks.

grahamc2003

Ethical banks? I think that's in the OED as the definition of an oxymoron.

andyjthornton

Yup, no doubt. I guess that is the problem. The Occupy movement (at least in NYC) is really pushing the Move Your Money Movement. I get very little from my high street bank and would like to register my vote against! (maybe not a popular point of view on MSE, but hopefully one or two will feel the same)

zeupater

andyjthornton wrote: »

Yup, no doubt. I guess that is the problem. The Occupy movement (at least in NYC) is really pushing the Move Your Money Movement. I get very little from my high street bank and would like to register my vote against! (maybe not a popular point of view on MSE, but hopefully one or two will feel the same)

Hi

I don't really follow the logic above .... surely if you are getting very little from your high street bank then you would be better to move to another provider which offers more. This could be more in return for your savings or lower operating costs, more as in better benefits for being a customer, or more in terms of your ethical standpoint ... so this is exactly what MSE promotes and is therefore definately a popular point of view.

Anyway, looking at the ethical providers link provided by competionscafe it seems that your best ethical options seem to be mainly old fashioned local mutual building societies as raised earlier ....

HTH
Z