Ethical Banking

 An Ethical Bank (social, alternative 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 well-known being the transparency and the social or environmental aim of the projects they finance.

Some of them are specialized in micro credits.

Ethical banks are regulated by the same system as traditional banks and have to stand 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 divisive, because what is "ethical" or not is subjective, and also because it seems to involve that the other banks are not ethical. However, it is the most extended value.

Ethical banks usually work with narrower limits than traditional ones, and therefore they tend to have few offices and operate mostly by phone, Internet or mail. An extreme case of this is Smile (a branch of Cooperative

Bank) , the first ethical bank that operates exclusively by Internet.

List of ethical banks