Global Alliance for Banking on Values

The Global Alliance for Banking on Values (GABV) is an independent network of banks and banking cooperatives with a shared mission to use finance to deliver sustainable economic, social and environmental development. The Global Alliance comprises 54 financial institutions world wide; serving close to 50 million customers, holding up to $163.4 billion USD of combined assets under management, and supported by close to 60,000 co-workerss.

The alliance was founded in 2009. Membership is based upon a charter to use finance to find global solutions to international problems—and to promote a positive, viable alternative to the current financial system.

The secretariat is headquartered at Triodos Bank in The Netherlands

The GABV serves as a Chief Executive Officer network providing a unique space for leaders committed to values-based banking to collaborate and inspire. It also provides learning and development opportunities for senior executives, experts and employees at member banks.

Partnerships

GABV works with key partners to further the common purpose, such as Netherlands Development Finance Company, SFRE Fund, MIT Community Innovators Lab (CoLab), UNEP, the Rockefeller Foundation who co-funded the early stages of the GABV Financial Capital and Impact Metrics programme, and Georgetown University who delivered a high-profile event imagining a better future for the banking industry in 2013.^[1]

Members^[2]

Principles of Values-Based Banking

The GABV Principles of Values-based Banking describe the fundamental pillars of the movement and membership criteria:

Principle 1. Triple bottom line approach at the heart of the business model.

Values-based banks integrate this approach by focusing simultaneously on people, planet and prosperity. Products and services are designed and developed to meet the needs of people and safeguard the environment. Generating reasonable profit is recognized as an essential requirement of values-based banking but is not a stand-alone objective. Importantly, values-based banks embrace an intentional approach to triple-bottom-line business – they don’t just avoid doing harm, they actively use finance to do good.

Principle 2. Grounded in communities, serving the real economy and enabling new business models to meet the needs of both.

Values-based banks serve the communities in which they work. They meet the financial needs of these geographic and sector-based communities by financing enterprises and individuals in productive and sustainable economies.

Principle 3. Long-term relationships with clients and a direct understanding of their economic activities and the risks involved.

Values-based banks establish strong relationships with their clients and are directly involved in understanding and analysing their economic activities and assisting them to become more values-based themselves. Proper risk analysis is used at product origination so that indirect risk management tools are neither adopted as a substitute for fundamental analysis nor traded for their own sake.

Principle 4. Long-term, self-sustaining, and resilient to outside disruptions.

Values-based banks adopt a long-term perspective to make sure they can maintain their operations and be resilient in the face of external disruptions. At the same time, they recognize that no bank, or its clients, is entirely immune to such disruptions.

Principle 5. Transparent and inclusive governance.

Values-based banks maintain a high degree of transparency and inclusiveness in governance and reporting. In this context, inclusiveness means an active relationship with a bank’s extended stakeholder community, and not only its shareholders or management.

Principle 6. All of these principles embedded in the culture of the bank.

Values-based banks seek to embed these principles in the culture of their institutions so that they are routinely used in decision-making at all levels. Recognizing that the process of embedding these values requires deliberate effort, these banks develop human resources policies that reflect their values-based approach (including innovative incentive and evaluation systems for staff), and develop stakeholder-oriented practices to encourage values-based business models. These banks also have specific reporting frameworks to demonstrate their financial and non- financial impact.

See also

• Microfinance

External links

• The official website of the GABV

Sources and references