bankmecu supports finance for people and the planet at Rio+20
Against a background of continuing turmoil in the mainstream financial industry, leaders from the sustainable banking industry, academics and experts in the green economy, have launched four policy recommendations to transform the financial system from a short to a long-term focus, today.
CEOs from the Global Alliance for Banking on Values (GABV) – a network of the world’s leading sustainable banks, the Green Economy Coalition (GEC) – the largest civil society alliance working on green economy, and the Norwegian Forum for Environment and Development (FoRUM) announced four practical proposals as part of a new initiative ‘Banking because the future matters’ at a specially convened event on the eve of a major United Nations conference, Rio+20, in Brazil. The proposed measures would deliver a profound shift in the financial system from one primarily focused on short-term wealth creation, to one wholly focused on long-term resilience and prosperity. They are:
- To incentivize private institutions and create new public ones to offer sustainable products
- Promote diversity to increase innovation
- Improve long-term, sustainability reporting
- and, discourage speculative activities with no social benefit.
As a customer owned bank and the first Australian bank to be accepted as a member of the GABV, bankmecu supports these policies which encourage a values driven sustainable approach to banking.
bankmecu Managing Director Damien Walsh, say’s “It is crucial that more banks adopt a sustainable approach to banking, which serves the interests of people and the environment, and which is financially robust”.
“bankmecu customers can feel assured of bankmecu’s commitment to creating shared value on behalf of customers, the community and the environment.
“bankmecu operates in ways that enhance its competitiveness and its shareholders wealth simultaneously whilst advancing the economic, social, environmental and governance conditions in the communities where it operates; not in a way that is marginal to its business but in a way that is central to everything it does as a customer owned responsible bank”. said Walsh.
You can read the full media release announcement regarding the four policies here.