The environment, a criterion for choosing a bank
Friends of the Earth are publishing the 2008-2009 version of their eco-citizen guide “Environment: how to choose my bank? »In partnership with the CLCV.
The association has analyzed the environmental and social impacts of the various activities of the major French banks in order to inform citizens of the use made of the money they entrust to their bank, and to push them to change their practices. The guide reveals in its rankings three distinct groups of banks: Nef and Crédit Coopératif with positive impacts, Banque Postale, Banque Populaire, Caisse d'Epargne and Crédit Mutuel-CIC with low to moderate risks, and Crédit Agricole, Société Générale and BNP Paribas, which are the most risky and for which the Friends of the Earth formulate specific recommendations.
The publication of the guide “Environment: how to choose my bank? 2008/2009 ”comes a year and a half after the first version. Based among other things on the expertise of BankTrack, the international network of NGOs working on finance of which Friends of the Earth are members, the 2008-2009 guide confirms what its predecessor already revealed: too many French banks are involved in controversial projects with heavy social and environmental impacts. Yann Louvel, Private Finance campaign manager at Amis de la Terre, summarizes the results obtained: “The large French network banks have extremely diversified activities and professions, with equally disparate impacts. The analyzes that we carried out made it possible to distinguish three very different groups of banks according to the impacts induced by their activities ”.
In addition to this classification, the guide “Environment: how to choose my bank” also presents the functioning of French banks and presents to consumer-citizens the steps to follow to change banks. Solidarity finance and socially responsible investment (SRI) products are presented, as is the initiative of the Caisses d'Epargne, which followed a recommendation from Friends of the Earth, and proposed labeling their products. banking services for individuals according to three components (security, responsibility and climate). Finally, the guide describes the different solutions for financing your ecological house.
Read more and debate: change bank, ecological and social criteria et visit the Friends of the Earth website