The 'Big Five’ UK banks have been slammed for their poor ethical and green performance in a new report by leading alternative consumer organisation Ethical Consumer.
Ethical Consumer’s
banking report, released today, brands UK banking the "most unethical" business sector in the UK. It rates over 40 of the UK’s high street financial institutions against 23 different
ethical and
environmental criteria, including environmental reporting, climate change, product sustainability, animals, people and politics. It finds widespread involvement in corporate malpractice, greenwash and investments in climate changing industries among the 'Big Five’ banks – Barclays, RBS, Lloyds, Santander and HSBC.
The report contains buyers' guides, giving details of ethical alternatives to bank products and recommending alternative banks and lending institutions. Financial instititutions that come out on top include the Co-op Bank, smile.co.uk, the Charity Bank, Ecology Building Society, Triodos Bank, the Coventry, Cumberland, Norwich & Peterborough, Leeds and Nationwide building societies and the credit unions. Alternative banking models such as 'peer to peer' lending and islamic banking are also looked at.
One of the purposes of the report is to urge consumers to join a campaign to move their accounts to alternative financial outfits in a month of action in March. More than three quarters of the UK population bank with the 'Big Five’ financial institutions.
Greenwash
The report accounts how, while on the one hand the major UK banks are associating themselves with sustainable initiatives, on the other they are helping to bankroll 'dirty coal’ and other unsustainable energy and mineral extraction.
In one case of greenwash, it highlights how RBS was forced to pull out of sponsoring Climate Week last year following protests over its involvement with the event, while at the same time financing of fossil fuels.
It also highlights how the banks are involved in tax avoidance on a major scale, while at some the big bonus culture is still rife and at others links to human rights abuse have been uncovered.
"The 85 per cent of the UK's population that bank with the Big Five banks will be appalled to learn that their money is being used to support a corporate culture that stands accused of everything from tax avoidance to exacerbating global hunger," co-author of Ethical Consumer Banking Report Rob Harrison said.
"The big financial institutions have completely lost their way on the whole issue of sustainability because their attention has been focussed on the global financial crisis."
In a bid to help consumers make informed choices on who they bank with, the report provides Buyer Guides, in which it ranks a range of banking products, including personal accounts, ISAs and morgages. It also recommends 'Best Buy’ products.
Move Your Money campaign
One of the aims of the guides is to encourage consumers to join a new 'Move Your Money’ campaign, which is supported by a coalition of groups including Co-operatives UK, Ethical Consumer and the New Economics Foundation. The campaign aims to get people to move their accounts from the big banks to more ethical alternatives during the month of March.
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