Wednesday, May 23, 2007

Bank + Ethics? Wow!

It’s not often you hear about banks being ethical, I’m afraid. I’m sure they really, truly are, but you never hear them saying so. One bank – a co-operative bank – does say so, and says it fairly loudly. On their website you can see an article telling you how they’ve actually lost business as a result of acting more ethically, in the environmental, human rights, animal welfare and other areas. They even detail which businesses they’ve turned down because of what those businesses were doing in such areas. It’s quite heartwarming!
Okay, you say, they’re losing business. What sort of a bank is that? Well, curiously enough (it’s always curious that doing good is actually more profitable!) their loan business is increasing. They’ve gone from providing ethical services to certain individual clients way back in 1992 to being ethical on a large scale. With no loss of custom.
The name of the bank is The Co-operative Bank, and it’s located in the UK. Maybe I should go and visit them when I’m over there in the next few months! Or even set up an account with them!
By the way, there’s a good deal more on their site about the ethics side of things. It’s worth checking out.

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