{"id":22932,"date":"2009-03-08T09:07:00","date_gmt":"2009-03-08T09:07:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/clusterfamilyoffice.com\/blog\/?p=391"},"modified":"2009-03-08T09:07:00","modified_gmt":"2009-03-08T09:07:00","slug":"triodos-bank-la-hucha-del-s-xxi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/clusterfamilyoffice.com\/en\/triodos-bank-la-hucha-del-s-xxi\/","title":{"rendered":"Triodos Bank, the 21st-century piggy bank."},"content":{"rendered":"
As we mentioned in a comment on the article \u00abMortgage socialisation and \u00bbBad Owners\u2019\u2019<\/a>, we recently held a meeting with Triodos Bank<\/a>. It is a curious bank which, despite being registered like any other bank, has certain distinctive features that set it apart from commercial banking \u2013 that is to say, from the rest.<\/p>\n

To begin with, it is a bank of Dutch origin with a 28-year history, which works exclusively with and for projects that meet the criteria of promoting:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Nature and the environment.<\/li>\n
  2. Social sector.<\/li>\n
  3. Culture.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    \"\"<\/a>In other words, in order to finance a project using its customers\u2019 money (which has been leveraged, as is the case in the rest of the banking sector), it must meet the following requirements:<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. To identify sustainable sectors in which to support the development and consolidation of innovative businesses and projects, by establishing positive funding criteria.<\/li>\n
    2. It should select specific initiatives that benefit society, in which the social, environmental and cultural added value is just as important as the financial and commercial value.<\/li>\n
    3. Ensure that each project, selected on the basis of a positive approach, is checked against the bank\u2019s exclusion criteria.<\/li>\n
    4. These should be clearly identified activities, projects or assets within each organisation.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      \"\"<\/a>Another of the most striking features of this bank is that deposit account holders can only deposit their money to earn interest in accordance with the account types and interest rates set by the bank. In other words, it is not possible to invest in a portfolio of fixed-income or equity securities, nor in any fund or investment vehicle other than those offered by Triodos Bank itself. Why? Because investing in shares, fixed-income securities or any other type of investment managed by third parties does not ensure compliance with the aforementioned criteria regarding business activities, financing and investment.<\/p>\n

      This phenomenon means that the bank is merely a piggy bank into which money is deposited so that it can be lent out in accordance with the bank\u2019s rigorous, pre-established criteria, thereby reassuring its customers that their money is being used to finance sustainable projects. Investment banking clearly has no place in this institution. But what is truly striking is that it does not even have much in common with commercial banking.<\/p>\n

      \"\"<\/a>As regards mortgage lending, we were told that, until recently, they only provided mortgages for the purchase of properties that had been built to specific environmental and sustainability standards. Subsequently, they have gradually relaxed this policy to allow loans for any property for those who were already Triodos customers. They also require that a small portion of the funding be used to carry out a study aimed at making improvements to the property. These improvements must make the property more compliant with the sustainability criteria established for property financing. Of course, they have never exceeded 80% of the valuation, nor have they included any other type of financing for mortgage costs or consumer spending.<\/p>\n

      In short, we thought it was something of a rarity in the world of banking. A bit like a return to the roots of banking: simple, basic, sustainable\u2026 and safe?<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      Tal y como os dijimos en un comentario al art\u00edculo \u00abSocializaci\u00f3n de hipotecas y Bad Owners\u00bb, mantuvimos recientemente una reuni\u00f3n con Triodos Bank. Curioso banco que a pesar de estar registrado como cualquier otro banco tiene ciertas particularidades que le hacen distinto de la banca comercial, o sea del resto. Para empezar es un banco, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22932","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sin-categorizar"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/clusterfamilyoffice.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22932","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/clusterfamilyoffice.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/clusterfamilyoffice.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clusterfamilyoffice.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clusterfamilyoffice.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22932"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/clusterfamilyoffice.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22932\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/clusterfamilyoffice.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22932"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clusterfamilyoffice.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22932"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clusterfamilyoffice.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22932"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}