Ethical Banks

Petriix

It's a bit like asking who is the most compassionate Conservative or the kindest serial killer.

Dr_Crypto

It just seems like swimming upstream when the majority of people would support a bank which finances any cruel
or despotic regime if they got a £100
switch bonus. But then if we all
thought like that nothing would ever get better 🤷🏻‍♂️

gsmh

Having slept on it, I decided that even if Triodos was involved in the microcredit scandal in Cambodia it wouldn't have been a deliberate policy decision - the bank has everything to lose, given it's ethical stance. I'm staying with them and have cancelled my Virgin Money account. The short few hours that was open felt like I was banking in Toytown. I could never live with that level of patronisation.

wmb194

gsmh said:

Having slept on it, I decided that even if Triodos was involved in the microcredit scandal in Cambodia it wouldn't have been a deliberate policy decision - the bank has everything to lose, given it's ethical stance. I'm staying with them and have cancelled my Virgin Money account. The short few hours that was open felt like I was banking in Toytown. I could never live with that level of patronisation.

Pull the other one, you were never serious. I think all of this 'ethical' stuff is hilarious. I've had accounts with Triodos, Co-op and many of the other dippy-hippy virtue signallers and yet, highly amusingly, they've never, ever asked me where my money came or comes from. It seems that they won't do business with particular companies but they will do plenty of business with their employees and investors.

gsmh

I can't post more than this without giving away personal info. I received the account confirmation email from Virgin Money last night, and closed the account this morning. I am completely serious. I agree with colsten that there will always be skeletons in the closet, but it's about choosing the bank with the fewest and smallest skeletons. I would wager that by any measure, Triodos is more ethical than, say, Barclays and it would be very interesting to hear an argument to the contrary. Most people who would like a more ethical banking system are concerned about what the bank does with their money, a conscious policy decision by the bank, rather than that there might be another customer of dubious worth who uses the bank to deposit funds. That is an unconscious decision by the bank and there's not a lot they can do once checks have been made and come back clear. Anyone who is a known fraudster would, hopefully, be flagged before an account was offered.

wmb194

Hah, that's funny. This is the same type of problem that HSBC is continuously berated for: banks and investors cannot be responsible for every little that happens. Anyway, you need to define what you mean by, "ethical." It's interesting and informative that you jump to crime, fraud and "dubious worth" from what I wrote: I said and meant to imply no such thing. IIRC from another thread where you were berating everyone as unethical for taking switching offers you said that you were uncomfortable with people earning anything more than a pittance in interest and that you were very uncomfortable with people making money from investments. From this standpoint it must be hard to see anything much as, "ethical."

gsmh

I should have known better than to engage. It's like the twitching curtain brigade on here sometimes. Let's have a look back at what they posted to see if we can try and catch them out. You make my case for me. Have a nice day.

wmb194

gsmh said:

I should have known better than to engage. It's like the twitching curtain brigade on here sometimes. Let's have a look back at what they posted to see if we can try and catch them out. You make my case for me. Have a nice day.

How have I made a case? You're very judgmental and no, I haven't done any digging, I simply remember. I don't think it would be possible anyway as I think you're using a different account or pseudonym now.

colsten

IMO, the multi-year involvement of a company in clearly exploitative practices, and their claims of being ethical are simply incompatible. That might be down to my personal opinion of what "ethical" means. It is a totally subjective term, and I generally run a mile when the "I'm ethical" flag is waved. With that, I am outta here.

robatwork

Ethical Bank is an oxymoron and anyone who thinks otherwise is deluding themselves. If you really want pure ethical, keep your money in a safe and invest it yourself.

A few years back, the main self-declared ethical player was Coop. Turns out its chairman was a bit of a hypocrite...

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/co-op-bank-paul-flowers-city-ban-fca-financial-services-agency-chairman-sex-drugs-emails-a8242456.html