Have you ever thought of what your bank is using your money for?
Currently there are rather restricted opportunities in Hungary for those who would like to manage their personal financial matters in a way that is supporting certain positive goals (environmental or social initiatives) and excluding negative fields (exploitive or polluting industries, armaments industry, etc.) at the same time.
Additionally, what poses a serious obstacle to sustainable, local initiatives (rural development, organic farming, and renewable energy) is that they cannot make the necessary profit that a bank expects in the current “non-sustainable” circumstances.
It is important to create such local financial cycles that would help strengthen sustainable, local initiatives from local money, thus creating local employment opportunities and targeting local consumers. This would not only be more transparent to everyone but would also decrease the burden on the environment and enable a healthier local society to develop.
The long-term goals of our initiative is establishing a cooperative banking institution that does not only aim at the size of the profit, but also finances certain advancing social and environmental causes with moderate profit through loans that are on preferential term. On the one hand, this would offer an alternative to traditional banks. On the other hand, we would offer resources to such initiatives that would steer the economy and society in a more sustainable direction.
Banks in Focus
Reviews of the investment policies of international and Hungarian banks in aspect of sustainable development
Click here for details!
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