Ethical banking is coming to Croatia.
Apparently, there are banks which do not care about their profits. They offer to their clients cheaper loans and do not charge them various fees. Every year, there are more and more such banks. At the moment, there are 26 of them, with total assets of 30 billion euros. They operate in places where commercial banks do not want to, due to various risks, and offer much lower interest rates on loans, reports Slobodna Dalmacija on September 12, 2015.
The first ethical bank in Croatia will begin to operate in 2016, with the main motto – the sustainability of a project is more important than the yields or interest. For example, in giving loans to ecological agricultural producers, they also give them expert advice on how to run a business. That is the reason why this year the bank representatives will take part at the big agricultural fair in Gudovac near Bjelovar. In the European Union, there are more and more cooperatives which are using joint projects to raise money from ethical banks.
The centre of European power in Brussels also supports the establishment of the first ethical bank in Croatia. While many people wonder where these ethical banks get their capital, the fact that there is a number of such institutions in Europe proves that raising money is no problem at all. The investors are individuals, cooperatives, institutions and companies, who then make a joint decision which projects they will support.
The ethical bank still has to be licensed by the Croatian National Bank, and then we will be able to see for ourselves how does this new and different kind of lending works, and whether it is possible that the profits are not the priority number one for a bank.
