Triodos Bank
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Triodos Bank N.V. is an
ethical bank An ethical bank, also known as a social, alternative, civic, or sustainable bank, is a bank concerned with the social and environmental impacts of its investments and loans. The ethical banking movement includes: ethical investment, impact inves ...
based in the
Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...
with branches in
Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...
,
Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
,
United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...
and
Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...
. It was founded in 1980. Triodos Bank finances companies which it believes add cultural value and benefit to both people and the environment. That includes companies in the fields of solar energy, organic farming or culture.
As of 2021, Triodos Bank has over 750,000 customers worldwide.


History

The name Triodos is derived from the
Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
"τρὶ ὁδος - tri hodos," meaning "three roads" (people, planet, profit). The bank was initially founded as an
anthroposophical Anthroposophy is a spiritualist movement founded in the early 20th century by the esotericist Rudolf Steiner that postulates the existence of an objective, intellectually comprehensible spiritual world, accessible to human experience. Followers ...
initiative with a mission to realise and promote quality of life in the broadest sense, not just here and now but over the long-term and from a global perspective. In 1980 Triodos launched the first "green fund", a fund for environmentally friendly projects, on the
Amsterdam Stock Exchange Euronext Amsterdam is a stock exchange based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Formerly known as the Amsterdam Stock Exchange, it merged on 22 September 2000 with the Brussels Stock Exchange and the Paris Stock Exchange to form Euronext. The r ...
.
Friends of the Earth Friends of the Earth International (FoEI) is an international network of environmental organizations in 73 countries. The organization was founded in 1969 in San Francisco by David Brower, Donald Aitken and Gary Soucie after Brower's split with ...
in the
Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...
claims that transferring 10,000 euros in savings from a "climate laggard" such as
ABN Amro ABN or abn may refer to: Companies * ABN AMRO Group, a Dutch bank group * ABN AMRO, sometimes referred to as "ABN" in shorthand, is a Dutch state-owned bank * Algemene Bank Nederland, a now-defunct Dutch bank Radio, news and television organizat ...
to Triodos will effectively result in a carbon dioxide emissions saving equivalent to what would be achieved by not driving a car for six months. The bank compensates 100% of its own CO2 emissions. Triodos took over the British ethical bank Mercury Provident in 1994.Paul Gosling
"Ethical banks to merge"
The Independent, 30 January 1994
The bank operations and customer support are mainly offered digitally, but adapt to local business norms. In Spain, for example, several physical offices have been opened in major towns. As of December 31, 2015, the Triodos Banking Group had a business volume of around EUR 12.3 billion, issued over 44,000 (2015) loans and managed over 700,000 customer accounts in Europe. Triodos Bank received the Sustainable Bank of the Year 2009 award from the Financial Times and the International Finance Corporation (IFC), an organization of the World Bank, having been selected from 165 institutes from 42 countries.


Philosophy

The Triodos Bank refers to their work as the anthroposophical principle of social threefolding. The bank transfers its customers' deposits exclusively to the real economy, thereby financing companies, organizations and projects which it believes contribute to ecological, social or cultural change. In accordance with this philosophy, Triodos Bank in Germany purchases electricity from the green energy provider Naturstrom AG.


Transparency

Triodos "publish details of every organisation
hey Hey or Hey! may refer to: Music * Hey (band), a Polish rock band Albums * ''Hey'' (Andreas Bourani album) or the title song (see below), 2014 * ''Hey!'' (Julio Iglesias album) or the title song, 1980 * ''Hey!'' (Jullie album) or the title s ...
lend to, and invest in". The bank displays its annual report online for loans and funds entrusted, which highlights key Triodos Bank facts and figures.


Policy

Savers can open conventional
savings account A savings account is a bank account at a retail bank. Common features include a limited number of withdrawals, a lack of cheque and linked debit card facilities, limited transfer options and the inability to be overdrawn. Traditionally, transac ...
s, as well as ethical funds and venture capital. Triodos also offer conventional personal current accounts and business banking services. Triodos also has an active international department, supporting
microfinance Microfinance is a category of financial services targeting individuals and small businesses who lack access to conventional banking and related services. Microfinance includes microcredit, the provision of small loans to poor clients; savings ...
initiatives across the
developing world A developing country is a sovereign state with a lesser developed industrial base and a lower Human Development Index (HDI) relative to other countries. However, this definition is not universally agreed upon. There is also no clear agreem ...
. Triodos is the only commercial
bank A bank is a financial institution that accepts deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital markets. Because ...
in the UK to provide an annual list of all the
loans In finance, a loan is the lending of money by one or more individuals, organizations, or other entities to other individuals, organizations, etc. The recipient (i.e., the borrower) incurs a debt and is usually liable to pay interest on that de ...
the bank has made. Triodos Bank maintains the following policy concerning the financial activities and investments:


Criteria for lending

Triodos is unusual in that it only lends to businesses and charities judged to be of social or ecological benefit. This "positive screening" extends its policies beyond those of ethical banks which solely avoid investing in companies judged to be doing harm ("negative screening"). The bank uses money deposited by close to 100,000 savers and lends it to hundreds of organisations, such as
fair trade Fair trade is an arrangement designed to help producers in developing countries achieve sustainable and equitable trade relationships. The fair trade movement combines the payment of higher prices to exporters with improved social and enviro ...
initiatives, organic farms, cultural and arts initiatives,
renewable energy Renewable energy is energy that is collected from renewable resources that are naturally replenished on a human timescale. It includes sources such as sunlight, wind, the movement of water, and geothermal heat. Although most renewable energy ...
projects, and
social enterprise A social enterprise is an organization that applies commercial strategies to maximize improvements in financial, social and environmental well-being. This may include maximizing social impact alongside profits for co-owners. Social enterprises ca ...
s. " riodosdoes not lend to organisations, businesses and projects that are directly involved for more than 5% of its activities in non-sustainable products and services or non-sustainable working processes. Triodos Bank will however, to the best of its knowledge, exclude all organisations, businesses and activities that produce or distribute
nuclear energy Nuclear energy may refer to: *Nuclear power, the use of sustained nuclear fission or nuclear fusion to generate heat and electricity * Nuclear binding energy, the energy needed to fuse or split a nucleus of an atom *Nuclear potential energy ...
, weapons, fur, pornography and environmentally hazardous substances"


Shareholders

Triodos is owned through
depositary receipt A depositary receipt (DR) is a negotiable financial instrument issued by a bank to represent a foreign company's publicly traded securities. The depositary receipt trades on a local stock exchange. Depositary receipts facilitates buying shares in ...
s by private investors and a small number of institutional investors. At the end of 2021 the bank had 43,521 depository receipt holders. Triodos Bank's shares are owned by the ''Stichting Administratiekantoor Aandelen Triodos Bank'' (SAAT), which subsequently issues depositary receipts to individuals and institutions, which entitle them to payment of a dividend, but to which only a limited voting right is attached. Depositary receipts for shares of the bank are not traded on any stock exchange. Holders are not allowed to own more than 10% of the shares and the maximum number of votes per holder in the general meeting of depositary receipt holders is limited to 1,000. This construction was chosen to prevent hostile takeovers. Triodos has managed trading in certificates itself since its inception. Mainly as a result of the COVID-19 epidemic, an imbalance arose between buyers and sellers of certificates, whereby there were more sellers than buyers. The bank therefore temporarily suspended trading on 18 March 2020. Trading resumed on 13 October 2020, with a cap of €5,000 for sales, which was later reduced to just €1,000. Trading was halted again on 5 January 2021. This led to a reaction from certificate holders. They joined forces in November 2021 in the 'Triodom' platform, from which the Triodos Bank Depositary Receipt Holders Foundation was established in March 2022, representing concerned customers with a combined depository capacity of €120 million. On 10 October 2022 the foundation filed a petition with the Enterprise Chamber of the Amsterdam Court of Appeal asking it to investigate, which the bank regrets. On 21 December 2021, Triodos decided to start trading the certificates on a
multilateral trading facility A multilateral trading facility (MTF) is a European Union regulatory term for a self-regulated financial trading venue. These are alternatives to the traditional stock exchanges where a market is made in securities, typically using electronic s ...
(MTF), a trading platform that is only accessible to registered participants and can therefore protect the autonomy and mission of the bank. The price of the certificates will then be determined by supply and demand rather than, as previously, on the basis of the net asset value of the bank. With a view to tax reporting obligations, the bank has applied an administrative discount of 30% to the value of the certificates from 31 December 2021. The last traded price of certificates was €84 on 5 January 2021 but for tax purposes they are valued at only €59. Because trading is not expected to restart until the 2nd quarter of 2023, a restrictive certificate buyback programme was planned in 2021 for certificate holders with an urgent need to sell their shares. However in August 2022, the bank announced that this plan would be withdrawn and proposed instead to pay an extraordinary dividend of €1.01 per depository receipt (before withholding tax). On 11 October 2022 the bank’s shareholder, SAAT, approved the move to the MTF. Captin BV has been chosen to manage the MTF.


See also

*
Ethical banking An ethical bank, also known as a social, alternative, civic, or sustainable bank, is a bank concerned with the social and environmental impacts of its investments and loans. The ethical banking movement includes: ethical investment, Impact invest ...
*
Shared Interest Shared Interest Society Limited is a fair trade financial co-operative based in the United Kingdom formed in 1990. Today it provides credit and financial services to fair trade producers, retailers, importers and exporters throughout the world. Sh ...
* GLS Bank, another ethical bank founded as an anthroposophical initiative *
Global Alliance for Banking on Values The Global Alliance for Banking on Values (GABV) is an organization of independent values-based banks. Structure The GABV consists of over 60 member banks, credit unions and microfinance institutions, from a total of 44 countries, serving more ...


References


External links

*
Integrated Annual Report 2019

Fair Finance Guide Netherlands
(screening of Triodosbank) *
The Colour of Money
', a print and online magazine produced by the bank {{Authority control Banks of the Netherlands Ethical banking Anthroposophy Social enterprises Companies based in Utrecht (province) Zeist Global Alliance for Banking on Values