Resources

Guides

Bank Better Campaign Handbook

Everything you need to know about banks and how to run a successful banking campaign.

Community Specific Resources

Christian - Ethical Banking Guide for Churches

Want to switch to a bank that aligns more closely with your church’s values and mission? Looking to green your finances as part of your church’s climate action?
Buddhist Org - How to Switch Guide

This Guide supports Buddhist organisations to figure out how they could move bank accounts.
LGBTQIA+ The Fossil Free Pride Pledge

LGBTQIA+ Pride events exist for us, to celebrate our community, history and struggle. There is no place in Pride for companies that hurt our friends and our siblings across the globe. This has always been a struggle for justice for ALL of us.
Local Government - Campaign Guide

Our local councils, whether city, town or parish, are there to represent our interests and protect us. This Guide aims to support people in local communities to be part of the Bank Better movement.
Schools - Campaign Guide

Climate change seriously affects children’s access to health, food, water, clean air, and education. This guide supports students, parents and staff to get their school to shift their bank account.
GP Surgeries - How to Switch Guide

This guide supports GP staff to figure out how their surgery could move bank accounts.

About the banks

FAQ

Did any of your questions not get answered? Feel free to contact us at bankbetter@tippingpointuk.org and we’ll try our best to answer.

Questions about fossil finance and banks

Is bank account switching the same as divestment?

No. Divesting means that an organisation’s investment portfolio is free from investments in unethical companies. Bank account switching means that an individual or organisation moves a bank account to a more ethical bank. Bank accounts are not related to investments.

Having said that, banks can manage an organsation’s investments. So an organisation that has a bank account with Barclays might also have its investment portfolio managed by Barclays, and thus might choose to move both its bank account and its investment portfolio to a different bank in one go. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that the organisation has invested in Barclays shares.

Does the money in my organisational or private bank account get given directly to fossil fuel companies?

No. A bank can support fossil fuel companies in various ways:

Big loans
Investments
Underwriting bonds

A bank isn’t allowed to directly use the deposits in bank accounts for any of these activities. However, organisations and individuals that use a bank strengthen the bank’s business and reputation. So it doesn’t really matter that much that banks don’t take money out of your bank account and directly give it to fossil fuel companies.

Do banks even care about the accounts of small organisations or individuals?

Yes. The strength of bank account switching is in collective action. Each individual bank account switch won’t make a massive difference. Bank account switching as part of a wider boycott movement has a substantial impact on banks’ reputations and business models. Banks use their customer numbers as collateral when applying for big loans from somewhere like the Bank of England or big investment banks – as well as being able to generate money from their customers in the form of interest. So small accounts do matter to banks, otherwise they wouldn’t spend so much on greenwashing.

Do fossil fuel companies even care if banks loan to them, given their huge profits?

Yes. At times when fossil fuel companies are doing very well, they may be able to fund their own projects, most of the time that is not the case and there are no organisations that could provide them with loans of a size that commercial banks can provide.

All of this bank account switching is a bit aggressive. Can’t we just talk to banks?Title

Organisations are very welcome to try to engage their bank before switching bank accounts. The truth is, however, that organisations have been doing this for decades and many NGOs and campaigners continue to do it. Unfortunately, that approach has only achieved limited success to date. If banks see customers leaving, this will only strengthen the position of the people engaging with them.

Questions about bank account switching

I work for a very large organisation. We don’t think any of the fossil-free banks provide the services we need. What should we do?

Firstly, make sure that this is actually true. Sometimes, we make assumptions about the smaller competitor banks that don’t hold true, and they provide better services than initially expected. You can find a list of fossil free banks on Bank.Green. Organisations like MotherTree can provide you with advice regarding the best banking options for you.

If you still think that there is no fossil-free bank that could cater for your needs, there are various other steps you could take:

Contact your bank, express your concern about their ties to fossil fuel companies, and request a meeting. We can brief you for your meeting and support you with writing your letter.
Move some of your funds or switch some of your banking services. For example, you might not be able to completely close your current account, but you could move most of your funds out of it. Or you might not be able to move your current account, but you could move your saving account or switch to a different investment manager. Don’t forget to communicate any such switches to your bank, your supporters and the public.
Organise a bank switching workshop for your staff or community so they can be supported to move their bank accounts to more ethical providers.

My organisation has a mortgage with a bank. Can it still switch?

Ask your organisation for the details of their mortgage agreement. But more often than not, organisations can pay their mortgages from any bank account. Even if your organisation cannot, they can still publicly commit to a bank account switch before they perform the actual switch.

My organisation’s contract with a bank isn’t up yet. Can it still switch?

Ask your organisation for the details of their bank contract. Surprisingly often, there are no penalties associated with terminating the contract early. If there is, your organisation could always announce their commitment to move bank accounts, even if they are unable to switch straight away.

Questions about sponsorship

My organisation is sponsored by a fossil bank, but we use that money for good. Why is there a problem with that?

It’s great if your organisation puts their sponsorship funds to good use. However, it makes intuitive sense to most people that it is unethical to receive certain funds, no matter what you spend them on. This becomes obvious when you use an extreme example. Say I own a small group of child slaves working for me day and night under great pain to mine minerals. I sell the minerals, make lots of money, and then decide to donate some of that money to your company. Most people would want nothing to do with slavery and child abuse and would not want to accept this money, no matter what you then go on to spend it on. So really, this isn’t a question of whether there is such a thing as sponsorship that is so unethical that it becomes unacceptable. The question is how high you place your ethical bar. Is it bad enough to be a fossil fuel company? Is it bad enough to be a financier of fossil fuel companies? In this day and age of climate collapse, we think that being a fossil bank is very much bad enough to refuse their sponsorship.

Questions about specific banks

Can our organisation bank with Triodos?

While Triodos has very high ethical standards, it unfortunately no longer provides new business or charity accounts. However, you may find that the Coop Bank and Unity Trust Bank are normally able to cater for businesses or charities of a similar size as what Triodos used to be able to.

Can our organisation bank with Nationwide?

It can. Like Triodos, Nationwide’s ethical standards are high. Unfortunately, it only provides savings accounts to businesses and charities.

I’ve heard rumours that Coop isn’t actually that ethical after all, is that true?

Arguably yes. Unfortunately, the Coop Bank has come into the ownership of US hedge funds. However, you could make the argument that this is still ethically not as nearly bad as the big five UK high street banks. Additionally, none of the hedge funds owns more than 25% of Coop Bank shares, meaning it still receives very high ethics ratings on pages such as Ethical Consumer. Finally, the Coop Bank is potentially going to be bought by Coventry Building Society, which would improve its ethical standards even further.

My organisation says that fossil-free banks aren’t as good as the big bad banks, is that true?

Not really. It depends on what your organisation needs from a bank. It’s true that if your organisation is a very big business, it is unlikely that one of the current fossil-free banks will be able to cater for its needs. However, when it comes to slightly smaller businesses and charities, fossil-free banks often receive better customer ratings than the big five UK high street banks. For example, the Coop Bank provides physical bank branches. Starling Bank provides excellent digital banking services. Charity and CAF Banks provide services and advice tailored particularly well to charities. The list goes on. Switching to an ethical bank doesn’t have to be a downgrade

Campaigning questions

How can Bank Better support us with our banking campaign?

There are a number of ways in which we can help you. Generally speaking, the sooner you get in touch with us at bankbetter@tippingpointuk.org, the likelier it is that we can create capacity to help with your request.

Connect you with other campaigners so you can learn from each other.
Run workshops about fossil banks and bank boycott campaigning for you and your team.
Help you develop your bank boycott strategy and design.
Support you with digital campaigning infrastructure and skills, e.g. petitioning, open letters, setting up a mailing list, etc.
Provide you with press, media and design support.
Support you with the creation of action strategies and packs and help you to implement them.