Let’s talk cheddar, dough, cabbage, bones, paper, and greenbacks. AKA MONEY, honey…. and ethical banks. When you put your hard-earned money into a bank, it doesn’t just sit there—it’s either lent or invested.

For most big names in banking, profits take priority, which should lead us to wonder about the ethical issues in banking. Conventional banks invest your money into what makes them money, which can include arms trading, nuclear weapons, and fossil fuels. They also rarely focus on financial inclusion, leaving disadvantaged individuals without banking options.

Fortunately, they’re not your only options if you’re looking for banks that are socially responsible, and while breaking up with your existing bank can be a pain, by doing so, you’ll be supporting your local community and our planet.

As we refresh content coming months, we’ll be employing our new Brand Rating System. This new system now looks at brands and organizations across 22 criteria, from climate impact to charitable endeavors, and you can learn about all of them here.

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Socially Responsible Banks Offering Do-Good Finance

Aspiration helps customers plant trees and offset their car travel emissions while providing a fair and transparent fee model.

You can add Beneficial State Bank to your list of green banks. They’re Fossil-Free certified and you’ll find their Seattle branch inside the world’s greenest commercial building.

For ethical banking in the UK, Triodos is an award-winning bank creating positive change through investing in a whole range of cultural, environmental, and social projects.

Index: Most Ethical Banks

  1. Aspiration Jump to brand
  2. Beneficial State Bank Jump to brand
  3. Sunrise Banks Jump to brand
  4. Amalgamated Bank Jump to brand
  5. Spring Bank Jump to brand
  6. Mascoma Jump to brand
  7. Triodos Bank Jump to brand
  8. The Co-operative Bank Jump to brand
  9. Starling Bank Jump to brand

Ethical Banking In The USA

Aspiration

Aspiration has not been rated.

*See parenthetical hyperlink for disclosures

Products: Online spend-and-save plans, investment, and Individual Retirement Accounts.

Fees: No monthly fees on standard accounts. Instead, you have the option to ‘Pay What Is Fair.’ Aspiration Plus costs $5.99/month (billed annually) or $7.99/month (billed monthly).

Credentials: 1% for the Planet member, Climate Neutral Certified.

Online banking alternative Aspiration(1) puts customers and the planet first with its transparent Pay What Is Fair fee model. 10% of the fee you decide on is donated to environmental nonprofits supporting climate action such as reforestation efforts.

None of your money will be used to fund the fossil fuel industry, and all Aspiration users can enable Plant Your Change(2), where you can round up purchases on your debit card or a connected credit card to the nearest dollar to fund a climate-change-fighting tree. This Plus account will also provide a recycled plastic debit card connected to your bank account.

Wondering how you can tackle your carbon footprint from your daily commute? Sign up for an Aspiration Spend & Save Plus account(3) and Aspiration will automatically offset the carbon dioxide from every gallon of gas you purchase on your Aspiration debit card as part of their Planet Protection program(4). Not to mention earning up to 6% cash back(5) when purchasing from approved climate- friendly brands as part of their Green Marketplace.

Beneficial State Bank

Beneficial State Bank has not been rated.

Products: Personal and business accounts (savings, checking, loans, and credit cards) as well as nonprofit accounts and loans.

Fees: Checking accounts range from $0 to $10 a month and savings accounts from $5 a month. Fees are waived for students, service people, and those over 55 or if a minimum balance is maintained. All fees are reduced by $2 a month when you opt for electronic statements.

Credentials: Certified B Corp, Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI), Fossil-Free Certified by Bank.Green, and Global Alliance for Banking on Values (GABV) member.

Beneficial State Bank is a community development bank designed to empower changemakers. Committed to “the triple-bottom-line of people, planet, and prosperity for all,” at least 75% of loans support initiatives like affordable housing and clean energy.

Their Seattle branch is housed in the Bullitt Center— the world’s greenest commercial building.

Sunrise Banks

Sunrise Banks has not been rated.

Products: Personal banking (checking, savings, credit cards, IRAs, and loans), business banking, commercial lending, government lending (New Markets Tax Credits & SBA lending), and fintech partnerships.

Fees: Personal checking accounts from $0 to $10 per month (waived by meeting monthly qualifications). The statement fee of $4.95 is waived if you sign up for electronic statements.

Credentials: Certified B Corp, CFDI, and GABV member.

Named a “Best for the World” B Corp for nine years in a row, Sunrise Banks is one of the most socially responsible banks. It serves Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, Sioux Falls, and South Dakota, where they work to empower communities through volunteer efforts, partnerships, and donations and give a minimum of 2% of their net income to worthy causes.

Sunrise Banks has also joined the Partnership for Carbon Accounting Financials (PCAF) to measure its carbon impact and aims to be net zero by 2050.

Amalgamated Bank

Amalgamated Bank has not been rated.

Products: Personal banking (checking, savings, credit cards, loans, mortgages), commercial banking (checking, savings, treasury management, credit cards, lending), and institutional investing.

Fees: $0-$3 for personal checking accounts

Eco/Ethical Credentials: Certified B Corp and GABV member.

Amalgamated Bank was made for change-makers. For over a century, they’ve championed important issues like workers’ rights, financial inclusion, affordable housing, LGBTQ+ rights, criminal justice, reproductive rights, gun safety, and immigrant rights.

Committed to tackling the climate crisis, they power their offices with 100% renewable energy and have set Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) validated targets.

Spring Bank

Spring Bank has not been rated.

Products: Personal banking (checking, savings, lending, mobile banking), business banking (loans, checking, small business lending), and nonprofit banking.

Fees: Zero maintenance fee options for checking accounts.

Credentials: Certified B Corp, CDFI

Spring Bank is New York’s first B Corp bank and was named a Best For The World in 2022 for the Governance and Customers categories. They are committed to investing in low and moderate-income communities in the South Bronx and Harlem.

Designated as a Community Development Financial Institution, its innovative depository and loan products support unbanked and underbanked consumers so they don’t end up in cycles of debt. It also provides capital and services to help small businesses get off the ground.

Following in the footsteps of other green banks, Spring Bank has been Carbon Neutral-certified since 2018. They never invest in the fossil fuel industry and regularly support local environmental nonprofits.

Mascoma

Mascoma has not been rated.

Products: Personal banking (checking, savings, CDs, IRAs, loans, and mortgages), business banking, investment, private banking, and trust services.

Fees: Monthly fees for checking accounts range from $5 to $14.99, but these may be waived if certain requirements are met. (See individual account options for details).

Credentials: Certified B Corp

Mascoma is another B Corp-certified bank on a mission to support communities. Along with the Mascoma Bank Foundation, it has donated over $11.4 million to local nonprofits in the past five years, including $125,000 to health care and $63,000 to environmental projects.

Mascoma Community Development (MCD) is a wholly owned subsidiary of Mascoma Bank that uses the New Markets Tax Credit (NMTC) Program to support low-income communities and individuals.

Over half of the bank’s board members are women, and their CoAlign resource group educates team members on DEI issues.

Socially Responsible Banks in the UK

Triodos Bank

Triodos Bank has not been rated.

Products: Personal banking (checking, savings, bonds, investments), business banking (loans, capital raising), charity banking (loans, capital raising), and institutional investing.

Fees: £3/month for a personal current account.

Credentials: Certified B Corp, founding member of GABV and PCAF, member of the UK Sustainable Investment and Finance Association (UKSIF), British Bank Awards for Best Ethical Financial Provider 2023, and Ethical Consumer Best Buy Label.

Award-winning Triodos has over 740,000 customers across the UK, The Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, and Germany.

Transparency is key for ethical banking options, which is why Triodos publishes the details of who it finances. Customers can see firsthand how their money influences positive change across the cultural, environmental, and social sectors. Social projects they support include youth centers, employment programs, housing associations, homeless services, and more.

The Co-operative Bank

The Co-operative Bank has not been rated.

Products: Personal banking (loans, savings, credit cards, insurance, mortgages), business banking (accounts, saving, lending), and charity accounts.

Fees: No fees for a standard current account. An Everyday Extra account (with phone insurance, travel insurance, and breakdown cover) costs £15 per month.

Credentials: Rated as the UK’s best Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) high street bank by Sustainalytics.

For over 150 years, the UK’s Co-operative Bank has provided customers with value-driven, ethical banking.

Their customer-led Ethical Policy is regularly updated to reflect the issues their customers feel strongly about and covers three pillars of people, planet, and community. They only provide services to businesses that align with their values and conduct an ethical screening process for all new business customers.

In 2023, they donated and raised over £1.5 million for charitable causes and partnered with various nonprofits, including Friends of the Earth and Shelter. You can read more in their latest sustainability report.

Note that the Co-operative Bank is not actually a co-operative, as it is now owned by private equity, including hedge funds. Its ethics are being safeguarded by the Customer Union for Ethical Banking who hope there will be a future return to majority co-operative ownership.

Starling Bank

Starling Bank has not been rated.

Products: Personal banking (including teens and kids), business banking (including lending), and sole trader accounts.

Fees: There are no fees for current accounts.

Credentials: Founder member of the TechZero climate action group and the first UK digital bank to join the PCAF.

Opening an account with this app-based bank is a completely digital experience. And with over 4.2 million bank accounts, woman-founded Starling Bank is one of the top ethical online banks, not to mention one of the most eco-friendly.

Their debit cards are made from recycled plastic, they plant thousands of trees every month, they run their offices on renewable energy, and they’re on their way to becoming NetZero. Talk about banks going green!

Why You Should Opt For Ethical Banking Options

Any time you put your hard-earned money into a bank, it doesn’t just sit in a vault. It’s either lent or invested…

…in exchange for an interest rate that pales in comparison to the amount of money the bank makes on your moolah.

But that’s the least concerning ethical issue in banking. Conventional banks invest your money into what makes them money, which includes arms trading, nuclear weapons, and fossil fuels.

There’s nothing that can ruin an end-of-year bonus like the thought of it supporting big oil!

This is where the idea of divesting comes into play.

Divestment is the opposite of investment. It means removing money from organizations that support harmful industries.

The practice of divesting has really only emerged in recent years. While it can be applied to any type of investment (religious organizations, universities, retirement funds, stocks, etc.), banks are an easy place to start putting our money where our hearts and values are.

How To Discern Which Banks Are Ethical?

Making our money work for us AND the betterment of the world: where do we sign up?

No, but literally… where?

Much like choosing a socially responsible investment firm, here is what to look for in an ethical bank:

  • Certified B Corp: This top-tier certification system assesses companies of all kinds on 80 different “impact areas” giving them a succinct numerical score that’s 100% public record. This is one of the hardest certifications to obtain but the number of B Corp banks is growing.
  • Transparency: Instead of falling victim to greenwashing, check for certifications, public statements, commitments, and impact reports demonstrating positive outcomes.
  • History: Many big banks have been or are still involved in fossil fuel financing. But operating a green building or using recycled paper doesn’t negate the impact their business is having on the planet.
  • Inclusivity: Not all banks are owned and operated by white men. Check for those founded or operated by women or POC, or are doing their part to offer tools and expertise to close racial and wealth gaps through banking.
  • Community support: Look for banks that do more than just put their logo on the back of a local baseball team’s kit. This might mean providing funding for local jobs, housing support, providing low-interest small business loans, opportunities to invest in carbon credits, scholarships and grants.