Ethical Banks

An ethical bank, also known as alternative, social, civic, or sustainable bank, is a bank concerned with the social as well as environmental impacts of its investments and loans. Ethical banks are part of a larger societal movement toward more social and environmental responsibility in financial sector. This movement includes: ethical investment, socially responsible investment, corporate social responsibility, and is also related to such movements as the fair trade movement, ethical consumerism, boycotting, etc. Ethical banking is a juvenile sector within this movement. Other areas, such as fair trade, have comprehensive codes and regulations that all industries that wish to be certified, as fair trade, must adhere to.

Ethical banking has not developed to this point; because of this it is difficult to create a concrete definition distinguishing exactly what it is that sets an ethical bank apart from conventional banks. Ethical banks are regulated by the same authorities as traditional banks and have to abide by the same rules. While there are differences between ethical banks, they do share a common set of principles, the most prominent being transparency and social and/or environmental aim of the projects they finance. Ethical banks sometimes work with narrower profit margins than traditional ones, and therefore they may have few offices and operate mostly by phone, Internet, or mail.

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