Triodos Bank N.V. is a bank based in the Netherlands with branches in Belgium, Germany, United Kingdom and Spain. It claims to be a pioneer in ethical banking. Triodos Bank finances companies which it thinks add cultural value and benefit both people and the environment. That includes companies in the fields of solar energy, organic farming or culture. The name Triodos is derived from the Greek "??? ???? - tri hodos," meaning "three-way approach" (people, planet, profit). Triodos Bank's balance sheet was worth EUR 5.3 billion by the end of 2012. The bank was founded as an anthroposophical initiative and continues to honor the work of Rudolf Steiner as the inspiration for its approach to banking.
Savers can open conventional savings accounts, as well as ethical funds and venture capital. Triodos also has an active international department, supporting microfinance initiatives across the developing world. Triodos is the only commercial bank in the UK to provide an annual list of all the loans the bank has made.
In 1980 Triodos launched the first "green fund", a fund for environmentally friendly projects, on the Amsterdam Stock Exchange. Friends of the Earth in the Netherlands claims that transferring 10,000 euros in savings from a "climate laggard" such as ABN Amro to Triodos will effectively result in a carbon dioxide emissions saving equivalent to what would be achieved by not driving a car for six months. The bank compensates 100% of its own CO2 emissions.
Triodos took over the British ethical bank Mercury Provident in 1994. As of the beginning of 2017, Triodos Bank had 672,000 customers. In 2012, about half of the customers were in the Netherlands, and a quarter in Spain.
The bank operations and customer relations are mainly based on the web, but adapt to local customs. In Spain, for example, physical offices are preferred by the clients and therefore several commercial offices have been opened in the major towns.
Video Triodos Bank
Policy
Triodos Bank maintains the following policy concerning the financial activities and investments:
Criteria for lending
Triodos is unusual in that it only lends to businesses and charities judged to be of social or ecological benefit. This "positive screening" extends its policies beyond those of ethical banks which solely avoid investing in companies judged to be doing harm ("negative screening"). The bank uses money deposited by close to 100,000 savers and lends it to hundreds of organisations, such as fair trade initiatives, organic farms, cultural and arts initiatives, renewable energy projects, and social enterprises.
"[Triodos] does not lend to organisations, businesses and projects that are directly involved for more than 5% of its activities in non-sustainable products and services or non-sustainable working processes. Triodos Bank will however, to the best of its knowledge, exclude all organisations, businesses and activities that produce or distribute nuclear energy, weapons and environmentally hazardous substances"
Transparency
Triodos "publish details of every organisation [they] lend to, and invest in". The bank displays its annual report online for loans and funds entrusted, which highlights key Triodos Bank facts and figures.
Maps Triodos Bank
See also
- Charity Bank
- Ethical banking
- Shared Interest
References
External links
- Official website
- Finances, 2008-2012
- Fair Finance Guide Netherlands (screening of Triodosbank)
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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