26 August 2018

Bank Ethically and Move Your Money

Cannock Chase Green Party calls for all patrons of Lloyds Bank to "Move Your Money" and consider ethical and community alternatives in response to their branch closure and letter response to community concerns

The reponse from Lloyds can be found here

There are many alternatives to the Big Five banks and as they seek to abandon our communties it presents an opportunity to consider how we invest our money, where we place our savings and what these institutions decide to do with the funds we trust them with.

The Website Ethical Consumer presents many of these options which give score card ratings you can modify to reflect your own individual priorities, these are catergorised as follows

Environment (Environmental Reporting, Climate Change, Toxic and Pollutants, Habitats and Resources, Palm Oil)

Animals (Animal Testing, Factory Farming, Animal Rights)

People (Human Rights, Workers's Rights, Supply Change Management, Irresponsible Marketing, Arms and Military Supply)

Politics (Controvertial Technologies, Boycott Call, Political Activities, Anti-Social Finance, Company Ethos +ve)

Product Sustainability +ve (Organic Product, Fairtrade Product, Environmental Features, Other Sustainability Features, Animal Welfare Features)

From their website Table Highlights 

Tax avoidance is a big problem in the finance sector.

Below we list how each company on the table has scored in our "likely use of tax avoidance strategies" category.

 Best rating

• Triodos,
  
• ICICI,
  
• Clydesdale,
  
• Nationwide Building Society,
  
• Co-op,
  
• Metro Bank,
  
• Yorkshire Bank.

 Middle rating:

• Handelsbanken
• RBS
  
• Barclays.

 Worst rating:

 

• HSBC,
• Danske Bank, 
• Bank of Ireland (Post Office), 
• M&S Money, 
• Lloyds Bank, 
• Tesco Bank, 
• Virgin Money, 
• TSB, 
• Citigroup, 
• Banco Santander.

 Companies that scored a middle or a worst rating were marked down in the Anti-Social Finance column on their score table.

 You might also consider the local Credit Union Fusion Credit Union

Fusion Credit Union is a savings co-operative whose members support each other through saving and borrowing together. Their aims are to encourage members to save and to provide access to loans at reasonable rates of interest.

As a not-for-profit organisation, they are owned and operated entirely by their members. If they make a profit, they share it between the members (or savers).

Membership is open to everyone who lives, works or volunteers in the Lichfield or Cannock Chase area. Membership is just £2 plus a minimum savings deposit of £1.

Fusion is run by a team of enthusiastic volunteers from the area and is part of a worldwide credit union movement, and one of over 300 successfully trading in the UK.

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