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Change Your Bank to one that is ‘Fair’ and ‘Ethical’
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The purpose of this website is to encourage you to make the same ‘fair’ and ‘ethical’ choices regarding the stewardship of your money as many of us already do with the food and goods that we buy in the supermarket and on the high street.
To put this simply – CHANGE YOUR BANK – to one that meets your ‘fair’ and ‘ethical’ standards.
As of August 2011 the mainstream UK high street banks that have the best ‘fair’ and ‘ethical’ standards are the Co-operative Bank and the Nationwide Building Society.
[
Click to see why I have named these two banks, but you should do your own research.]
======
In the supermarket many of us choose Fairtrade products such as tea, coffee, bananas, chocolate, etc. where the producer is paid and treated fairly for their product.
On the high street many of us choose products such as clothing and shoes that are manufactured in fair conditions by employees paid a living wage.
We need to make similar ‘fair’ and ‘ethical’ choices when choosing our bank and where to invest our savings and investments.
If you think that this is something that you should look into but have never had the incentive to do so then please spend a minute reading the remainder of this website, it is only 1 web page and it won’t take too long.
======
The reason that the banks are gambling with our money is because we have allowed them to. We have allowed them to do this because we keep our money in the same bank that it has been in for years.
For all our “shouting” about how bad the banks are, with their bonuses and their gambling of our money, we don’t do the one thing that will actually lead them to change. And that is to take our money, our savings, investments and pensions, out of those bad banks and put it into the good banks.
As more and more people take their money out of the bad banks and put it into the good banks the more the banks will realise that their behaviour affects their business.
So when you don’t like what you see on the news about the behaviour of your bank, it's directors, its investment policies, then CHANGE YOUR BANK.
======
We should look to the success of the Fairtrade movement to help us change the banks.
The Fairtrade movement started small many years ago, with only a small range of products sold from a small number of outlets.
As a result of consumers like us choosing Fairtrade products they are now widely available in supermarkets and more and more people are choosing Fair Trade products.
More recently clothing and shoe retailers have realised that they must ensure that their goods are made to ‘fair’ and ‘ethical’ standards. The damage to their brand is too great if their products are found to be made by children working long hours in poor conditions for very low wages.
====== Greenbelt 2011 ======
The impetus to create this simple website came following a talk at Greenbelt 2011 where it was politely explained to us that the current financial crisis is our fault.
It is our fault because we have allowed the banks to do whatever they wanted to do with our money, rather than what we would like them to do with our money.
The title and introduction to this talk by Matthew Bishop and Michael Green, using the words from the Greenbelt 2011 Festival Guide was;
Don’t blame the bankers. Why the financial crisis was your fault and it’s your job to sort out the mess
In the aftermath of the financial crisis everyone has been quick to cast the first stone at the bankers. But in the end we have to take responsibility too because we failed to be stewards of our own money.
Join what promises to be a lively debate as the authors of Philanthrocapitalism and The Road From Ruin set out their agenda for a new “citizen capitalism” that respects people and planet.
Matthew Bishop is the American business editor and New York bureau chief for the Economist. He was also on the Advisors Group of the UN’s International Year of Microcredit 2005 and has been honoured as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum.
Michael Green is an economist and writer. He has also written for The New York Times, The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph, The Times, Foreign Policy and is a regular commentator on economic news on the BBC, CNN and MSNBC among others.
[If you want to hear this for yourself
Click to buy this from the Greenbelt website.]
At the start of this talk, we in the audience were asked to give a simple show of hands for whether we thought that our banks were looking after our money well and whether we thought that our banks were behaving ethically. The predictably overwhelming consensus was that they were not and that they were behaving badly.
We were then asked how many of us had changed our bank. Only 1 or 2 people raised their hands from an audience of a couple of hundred.
[This is slightly paraphrased because I cannot remember the exact questions, but this was the general point.]
They very successfully made their point that many people are not happy with the behaviour of their bank but then do nothing about it.
It was here that I first heard it said that the only two UK high street banks that are ‘fair’ and ‘ethical’ are the Co-operative Bank and the Nationwide Building Society. When I returned home some internet research confirmed this, and identified some other smaller ones, notably Triodos.
I am one individual and I have started the process to change my bank to the Co-operative Bank.
Hopefully this website will encourage you to make the same ‘fair’ and ‘ethical’ choices for your money as you do when choosing Fairtrade products.
.
====== Disclaimer ======
The opinions in this website are of an individual concerned with the poor behaviour and practices of many of the UK high street banks. They are just opinions, they are not financial advice.
Hopefully they are opinions that will make you think about what you do with your money, and will encourage you to make the same ‘fair’ and ‘ethical’ choices as you do when choosing Fairtrade products.
This website has no connection with any of the banks named within it, no connection with Fairtrade, no connection with Greenbelt, and no connection with the speakers Matthew Bishop and Michael Green.
.
Change Your Bank to one that is ‘Fair’ and ‘Ethical’
.
The purpose of this website is to encourage you to make the same ‘fair’ and ‘ethical’ choices regarding the stewardship of your money as many of us already do with the food and goods that we buy in the supermarket and on the high street.
To put this simply – CHANGE YOUR BANK – to one that meets your ‘fair’ and ‘ethical’ standards.
As of August 2011 the mainstream UK high street banks that have the best ‘fair’ and ‘ethical’ standards are the Co-operative Bank and the Nationwide Building Society.
[Click to see why I have named these two banks, but you should do your own research.]
======
In the supermarket many of us choose Fairtrade products such as tea, coffee, bananas, chocolate, etc. where the producer is paid and treated fairly for their product.
On the high street many of us choose products such as clothing and shoes that are manufactured in fair conditions by employees paid a living wage.
We need to make similar ‘fair’ and ‘ethical’ choices when choosing our bank and where to invest our savings and investments.
If you think that this is something that you should look into but have never had the incentive to do so then please spend a minute reading the remainder of this website, it is only 1 web page and it won’t take too long.
======
The reason that the banks are gambling with our money is because we have allowed them to. We have allowed them to do this because we keep our money in the same bank that it has been in for years.
For all our “shouting” about how bad the banks are, with their bonuses and their gambling of our money, we don’t do the one thing that will actually lead them to change. And that is to take our money, our savings, investments and pensions, out of those bad banks and put it into the good banks.
As more and more people take their money out of the bad banks and put it into the good banks the more the banks will realise that their behaviour affects their business.
So when you don’t like what you see on the news about the behaviour of your bank, it's directors, its investment policies, then CHANGE YOUR BANK.
======
We should look to the success of the Fairtrade movement to help us change the banks.
The Fairtrade movement started small many years ago, with only a small range of products sold from a small number of outlets.
As a result of consumers like us choosing Fairtrade products they are now widely available in supermarkets and more and more people are choosing Fairtrade products.
More recently clothing and shoe retailers have realised that they must ensure that their goods are made to ‘fair’ and ‘ethical’ standards. The damage to their brand is too great if their products are found to be made by children working long hours in poor conditions for very low wages.
====== Greenbelt 2011 ======
The impetus to create this simple website came following a talk at Greenbelt 2011 where it was politely explained to us that the current financial crisis is our fault.
It is our fault because we have allowed the banks to do whatever they wanted to do with our money, rather than what we would like them to do with our money.
The title and introduction to this talk by Matthew Bishop and Michael Green, using the words from the Greenbelt 2011 Festival Guide was;
Don’t blame the bankers. Why the financial crisis was your fault and it’s your job to sort out the mess
In the aftermath of the financial crisis everyone has been quick to cast the first stone at the bankers. But in the end we have to take responsibility too because we failed to be stewards of our own money.
Join what promises to be a lively debate as the authors of Philanthrocapitalism and The Road From Ruin set out their agenda for a new “citizen capitalism” that respects people and planet.
Matthew Bishop is the American business editor and New York bureau chief for the Economist. He was also on the Advisors Group of the UN’s International Year of Microcredit 2005 and has been honoured as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum.
Michael Green is an economist and writer. He has also written for The New York Times, The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph, The Times, Foreign Policy and is a regular commentator on economic news on the BBC, CNN and MSNBC among others.
[If you want to hear this for yourself
Click to buy this from the Greenbelt website.]
At the start of this talk, we in the audience were asked to give a simple show of hands for whether we thought that our banks were looking after our money well and whether we thought that our banks were behaving ethically. The predictably overwhelming consensus was that they were not and that they were behaving badly.
We were then asked how many of us had changed our bank. Only 1 or 2 people raised their hands from an audience of a couple of hundred.
[This is slightly paraphrased because I cannot remember the exact questions, but this was the general point.]
They very successfully made their point that many people are not happy with the behaviour of their bank but then do nothing about it.
It was here that I first heard it said that the only two UK high street banks that are ‘fair’ and ‘ethical’ are the Co-operative Bank and the Nationwide Building Society. When I returned home some internet research confirmed this, and identified some other smaller ones, notably Triodos.
I am one individual and I have started the process to change my bank to the Co-operative Bank.
Hopefully this website will encourage you to make the same ‘fair’ and ‘ethical’ choices for your money as you do when choosing Fairtrade products.
.
====== Disclaimer ======
The opinions in this website are of an individual concerned with the poor behaviour and practices of many of the UK high street banks. They are just opinions, they are not financial advice.
Hopefully they are opinions that will make you think about what you do with your money, and will encourage you to make the same ‘fair’ and ‘ethical’ choices as you do when choosing Fairtrade products.
This website has no connection with any of the banks named within it, no connection with Fairtrade, no connection with Greenbelt, and no connection with the speakers Matthew Bishop and Michael Green.
====== Thank You ======
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