Ethical but safe savings accounts??

fangoose

Now that Coventry building society have closed a lot of Coventry branches for cost savings and just announced a deal with Coventry football club, I am looking for somewhere to move my accounts to. Any suggestions as to somewhere a bit more ethical? Yes, I know they are all businesses but this decision has got me spitting feathers!

ColdIron

What does ethical mean to you? There are many many different definitions and criteria for different people. Personally, signing a deal with a football club would have slipped below my radar

grumiofoundation

Depends what you mean by ethical?

Some examples which may be viewed as more ethical:

Credit unions.
Building societies rather than banks.
https://www.ecology.co.uk/
https://www.triodos.co.uk/
https://www.starlingbank.com/about/ethics-statement/
Believe starling has said in statements don't invest in or take invest from companies involved in the extraction of fossil fuels. Although not mentioned in page above...

As long as FSCS protected is 'safe'

mr_accountant

fangoose said:

Now that Coventry building society have closed a lot of Coventry branches for cost savings and just announced a deal with Coventry football club, I am looking for somewhere to move my accounts to. Any suggestions as to somewhere a bit more ethical? Yes, I know they are all businesses but this decision has got me spitting feathers!

Looking on Google it appears the ricoh arena is changing to the coventry building society arena for the next 10 years, the arena is owned by wasps rugby club and nothing to do with Coventry City football club, ccfc will rent it from this summer onwards.

Re the question aren't sharia banks (al-rayan, gatehouse, blme) considered ethical 

MX5huggy

The idea that a local building society sponsoring a local stadium is unethical will leave you with very few places to put your money. 

underground99

mr_accountant said:

Re the question aren't sharia banks (al-rayan, gatehouse, blme) considered ethical 

Depending on your ethics!

For savings and borrowing, the Islamic finance industry has been built around wanting to earn or pay what is in substance interest just like everyone does in the West while using subterfuge to dress it up as something else through a special form of contract so you won't get in trouble with God. Some observers may think that concept itself is ethically dubious.

Still, you can expect that if you save with a Sharia banking institution such as Al Rayan, the bank probably won't take your money and invest it in a loan to an unethical pornographer. 

However, the bank may remit its profits to head office in Doha, in a country where freedom of expression is curtailed and women under the age of 25 most obtain permission of their male guardians to leave the country or engage in daily activities such as signing contracts.

We all have our own personal ethics so it's hard to judge another's.

Bernard_Coleslaw

fangoose said:

Now that Coventry building society have closed a lot of Coventry branches for cost savings and just announced a deal with Coventry football club, I am looking for somewhere to move my accounts to. Any suggestions as to somewhere a bit more ethical? Yes, I know they are all businesses but this decision has got me spitting feathers!

I'm a CBS member and relatively local to their heartland area. They haven't, as you say, "closed a lot of Coventry branches for cost savings" - they closed several branches that were in areas with low footfall, opened a new branch at the Retail Park and are in the middle of upgrading the rest. They still have loads of branches in Cov and the surrounding area.

They've not announced a deal with a football club, either. They've announced a naming rights deal with the stadium owners, Wasps, which means they can promote their brand for the next 10 years. Whatever you think personally about sports, it's a good way of getting your name out there.

And from the news releases I've seen, they're going to be using this deal to create a community hub there for people in the local area.

Sounds pretty ethical to me so far.