Global alliance for 'banking on values' launched
Thursday, 26 March 2009
Eleven of the world's leading sustainable banks have created 'Global Alliance for Banking on Values', a new alliance to build a positive alternative to the global financial system in crisis.
The banks, including BRAC Bank in Bangladesh, ShoreBank in the US, and Triodos Bank in The Netherlands, which have assets of over $10 billion and serve over seven million customers in 20 countries, came together for the first time at a special meeting in the Netherlands recently.
Princess Máxima of The Netherlands, Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme Achim Steiner, BRAC Founder and Chairperson Fazle Hasan Abed and Brac Bank Chairman Muhammad Ali Rumee were also present at the launching ceremony of the alliance.
The new partnership planned to develop new ways of working, build organisations better suited to long-term sustainable thinking and new forms of ownership and economic cooperation in the crucial time of financial crisis.
Speaking at the launch, CEO of Triodos Bank Peter Blom said, "Unlike their enormous mainstream contemporaries, these banks are profitable, growing and crisis resistant. When it was unfashionable to do so they stuck to simple, core banking services that balance people, planet and profit. There's no one single answer to the global financial crisis. There are many. But the leaders of these organisations, acting on an international stage, hold many of them. Together they are an extraordinary force for change".
The banks, including BRAC Bank in Bangladesh, ShoreBank in the US, and Triodos Bank in The Netherlands, which have assets of over $10 billion and serve over seven million customers in 20 countries, came together for the first time at a special meeting in the Netherlands recently.
Princess Máxima of The Netherlands, Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme Achim Steiner, BRAC Founder and Chairperson Fazle Hasan Abed and Brac Bank Chairman Muhammad Ali Rumee were also present at the launching ceremony of the alliance.
The new partnership planned to develop new ways of working, build organisations better suited to long-term sustainable thinking and new forms of ownership and economic cooperation in the crucial time of financial crisis.
Speaking at the launch, CEO of Triodos Bank Peter Blom said, "Unlike their enormous mainstream contemporaries, these banks are profitable, growing and crisis resistant. When it was unfashionable to do so they stuck to simple, core banking services that balance people, planet and profit. There's no one single answer to the global financial crisis. There are many. But the leaders of these organisations, acting on an international stage, hold many of them. Together they are an extraordinary force for change".