Hey EA Forum reader, what bank account do you use? Why do you use them? Is it because you signed up for them over a decade ago and haven’t thought about it since^[1]? There’s a good chance that’s why.

Going back to earlier days of EA, it would look at cause areas as how neglected they were, how tractable they were and how important the area is.

It’s my view that moving banks hits the neglected and tractable goals, and skims perilously close to a threshold of importance. And when it’s so straightforward, it feels like an easy and worthwhile thing to do.

The problem with banks

Banks, as you probably know, are the powerhouses of the economy, and lend money to people and businesses to fund projects and the like. Banks have a range of places they can invest their money, and some of these opportunities are worse for the world than others.

What kind of worse?

Banks typically and logically will invest your money into whatever is most profitable. A lot of the time that can be fossil fuels, weapons (including autonomous drones), deforestation causing industries, animal exploitation and tobacco. 

As an example of how much funding goes into these sectors, the campaign Feedback found 
“Between 2015 and 2020, global meat and dairy companies received over $478 billion in backing by over 2,500 investment firms, banks, and pension funds headquartered around the globe.”

And the Banking on Climate Chaos report shows the scale of fossil fuel funding^[2];

But you can be sure that unless a bank has a policy against funding some of these, they will be doing it - even places like Natwest have “restricted” sectors that they continue to fund, with the only restriction being some additional audits. Some of these projects are “fully-autonomous armed unmanned aerial vehicles” and “non-harmful child labour” - what a phrase.

The effect of switching banks

First and foremost you can be more confident that your money is not directly going to the net negative sectors discussed previously. The most positive evidence I could find for this is from moving your pension, which isn’t a million miles away from moving your bank account. Make My Money Matter state that changing your pension to green funds could decrease your carbon footprint by more than 21 times the combined effect of  going vegetarian^[3], stopping flying and changing energy providers, which frankly seems too good to be true (and my LLM of choice thinks that it is also too good to be true - it does suggest that’s a ceiling if the best case scenario of moving your pension works). For other measures of how your positive impact would change from switching banks, I failed to find much concrete data, this would be addressed in a follow up if I write it.

There’s also the chance of causing a sea change in the banking industry - A student boycott of Barclays in 1986 led to them to pull out of apartheid era South Africa ^[4]

How do I change my bank then?

Fortunately, in the UK,  the current account switching service is available at the link. Your friend and mine Martin Lewis has a page on the best deals that are currently available for switching your current account - at time of writing (October 2025) there’s just Nationwide and Coop that offers a switching bonus, and are listed as one of the top 3 ethical banks by Ethical Consumer (see below).

It’s worth pointing out as well that if you have a current account that you like using, you don’t have to move that - just consider where your savings or stocks are kept. Wherever the bulk of your money is has the biggest effect through the bank.

Reviews of the switching service have generally been positive with people saying how easy it is. Consider that if you’re one of these people who stay with a bank for 17 years, even an hour of faff switching bank, would lead to 17 years of more positive impact with your money.

Trade-offs

Here’s what I have noticed after trying to use ethical banks for a while;

1. Generally lower interest rate/returns on stocks. I would estimate between 1-2% lower through an ethical bank than the alternative.
2. Apps and products are less competitive - Triodos, one of the most ethical options doesn’t even have a credit card, and neither Triodos or Co-op give you payment notifications such as Monzo does
3. Fewer physical branches (though this is happening across the sector)

My response to these

1. Yep, there’s no way around lower interest rates. However, I’ve also heard from a friend in finance that savings accounts are a way to lose money slower, as an amount of interest is wiped out by inflation anyway.
   With regards to stocks not gaining value as quickly as alternatives, you might consider it as a form of donating/tithing, that you will gain less money, but in the mean time your money (that is still your money, after all!) is doing much more good than it would do in whatever account/stocks that would give the biggest return
2. Since I’ve started paying for things through Google Wallet, I get payment by payment notifications which helps with one of these. 
   Whilst I would like to use the most ethical bank for all my financial products, I don’t see an issue with using the next most ethical bank for e.g. a credit card. Regardless, don’t let perfect be the enemy of good
3. This might just be me, but I haven’t needed to go into a branch for a while - last cheque I got I actually posted to my bank with my details on a post-it note and it got paid in with no issues

Which banks are actually ethical?

This list is produced by the magazine Ethical Consumer, which rates on a positive and negative rating out of 20. I have some issue with their rating (until recently, they marked “support nuclear power” as a straight negative) but I think it is a good ballpark.

1. Triodos - Most transparent ethical policy, publishes all investments, focuses on renewable energy and organic farming. No branches and no switching bonus but highest ethical standards.
2. Nationwide - Building society (member-owned, not shareholder-driven). Clear ethical stance against weapons and fossil fuels. Offers branches and decent app experience.
3. Co-operative Bank - Strong ethical policy since 1992, avoids fossil fuels, arms trade. Recently strengthened their ethical stance.
4. Monzo are surprisingly high up on this ranking - I’ve been told by a FinTech guy that because it’s relatively new it’s being buoyed by investment funding and it doesn’t have to invest in certain places to report profit to shareholders, so it’s liable to change.

Next on my to do list is changing your energy supplier

Resources;

https://www.ethicalconsumer.org/money-finance/shopping-guide/current-accounts

https://www.currentaccountswitch.co.uk/

https://www.comparethemarket.com/current-accounts/content/ethical-banking/

1. ^{^}

    account holders are more likely to stay with their bank – typically for 17 years – than remain loyal to their husband or wife, (which illustrates my point but also shows a terrible return on investment for paying for the average wedding)
   Switching banks: why are we more loyal to our bank than to a partner? | Current accounts | The Guardian (from 2013)

2. ^{^}

    https://www.ethicalconsumer.org/money-finance/shopping-guide/current-accounts

3. ^{^}

    https://makemymoneymatter.co.uk/pensions/ 

^{^}

 “A student boycott of the bank led to a drop in its share of the UK student market from 27 per cent to 15 per cent by the time it pulled out.” a percentage change which I find inspiring and probably frankly well outside of what system change we could cause at the present moment, but it gives a flavour of the scope of change that can be achieved with fairly easy steps.  https://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/barclays-faces-apartheid-court-action-340003.html

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