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Ethical banking

An ethical bank, also known as social, alternative, civic or sustainable bank, is a bank concerned about the social use of its investments and loans. Although there are differences among the main ethical banks, they share a common set of principles, the most prominent being the transparency and the social or environmental aim of the projects they finance. Some of them are specialized in microcredits.

Ethical banks are regulated by the same authorities as traditional banks and have to abide by the same rules. They have to be distinguished from ethical institutions that provide certain banking services but do not meet the legal definition of bank.

The name of "ethical bank" is somewhat controversial, because it seems to imply that the other banks are not ethical. However, it is the most extended denomination.

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. An extreme case of this is Smile (a subsidiary of Co-operative Bank), the first ethical bank that operates exclusively by Internet, followed by eBay Microplace.

Green ethical banking

Green banking is a subset of ethical banking focused on green energy, to address global warming.

Green banks

New Resource Bank, USA
ShoreBank, USA

Community Development Banks

Community Development Banks, a sub-set of Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs), are mission-driven and so may be considered "ethical banks". Nationwide, over 1000 CDFIs serve economically distressed communities by providing credit, capital and financial services that are often unavailable from mainstream financial institutions. CDFIs have loaned and invested over billions in our nation’s most distressed communities. Even better, their loans and investments have leveraged billions more dollars from the private sector for development activities in low wealth communities across the nation.

Ethical banks

English-speaking countries

Triodos Bank, United Kingdom (also based in The Netherlands, Belgium and Spain).
Co-operative Bank, United Kingdom.
Reliance Bank, United Kingdom
ShoreBank, USA
RSF Social Finance, San Francisco and New York, USA
Shared Interest, based in the United Kingdom, investing throughout the developing and developed world.
Wainwright Bank (USA).

Non-English-speaking countries

Banca Popolare Etica, based in Italy, with branch in Spain.
GLS bank, Germany.
Grupo Financiero FINSOL (Mexico).
JAK members bank, Sweden, interest-free bank
La Nef, France.
Triodos Bank, based in the Netherlands with branches in Belgium, the United Kingdom and Spain.
Andelskassen Oikos, Danish bank that lends as much as possible out to microfinance in less developed countries