Ethical Banking and Who are BAD companies??

[mummymusings]

Is LLoyds TSB an ethical bank? Other than the Cooperative does anyone have any suggestions as to who they feel is an ethical bank? and who is definitely not?

Should i be avoiding certain companies in general? Why? I feel if im trying to be more green in my home than i should continue this through my life, how can i be proud of cleaning my home in an environmentally sound way if my bank is bankrolling some crazed genocidal lunatic? (not that they are, i dont think!?) or im eating food a 4 yr old child has been picking for 18 hours of the day, where the hell do i begin to get this info? Any website suggestions?

i love the co-op for food, and i use smile, their internet bank. it is great, i changed from lloyds and it was easy. the co-op also do accounts for children and insurance (car, house, travel). they have a good ethical policy.

just want to bump this up, anyone info on other companys that we may use everyday that arent ethical in business?

thanks weasle coop does seem to come out on top! i shall have a look at Smile!

Ethical consumer do an Ethiscore rating on all major companies. Vetted on numerous critera. www.ethiscore.org

The Ethical Consumer co-operative picked up on your post via Google alerts. We recommend the Co-operative Bank and Smile internet bank as best buys for current accounts, because they have a credible ethical policies stating where your money will be lent. For ISAs and saving products we also recommend Triodos.

You can check out most of our reports free on our new website: see www.ethicalconsumer.org/FreeBuyersGuides/money.aspx

We're often asked why the numerical 'ethiscore' for the Co-op isn't very high, so here's some explanation: We rate companies as part of the larger corporate groups to which they belong. This sometimes causes controversy - but the raison d?etre is to encourage group-wide responses to ethical issues rather than treating ethical consumerism as a niche marketing opportunity.

With the Co-operative Group specifically The Co-operative Bank receives part of its negative scoring because of the activities of the Co-operative supermarket. Supermarkets as a sector pick up a lot of negative scores because they cover so many categories (such as animal rights issues) rather than this implying a particular problem with the Co-op supermarkets.

Another recommendation for smile - fantastic customer service by people who appear to genuinely care, and who are given licence to use their own initiative.

According to "The Good Shopping Guide" in 2004:

Good companies:
Abbey National
Alliance & Leicester
Bradford & Bingley
Britannia BS
Chelsea BS
Chesire BS
Co-op Bank
Coventry BS
Derbyshire BS
Ecology BS
Girobank
Leeds & Holbeck
Nationwide BS
Northern Rock
Norwich & Peterborough
Portman BS
Skipton BS
Yorkshire BS
Other Mutuals

Bad companies:
ASDA
Bank of Ireland
HSBC
Morrisons
Nat West
Royal Bank of Scotland
Saynsbury's
Tesco plc
Virgin Direct

Not enough info on:
Bank of Scotland
Barclays Bank
Clydesdale Bank
Egg
Halifax
Lloyds TSB
National Australia Bank
Safeway
Woolwich
Yourkshire Bank

They recommend looking at Gooshing for more up to date financial info and best deals.

HTH

Gooshing don't recommend Alliance & Leicester, Bradford & Bingley and Northern Rock as they are no longer mutual building societies.

here's the link