Student Finance Overview
If you buy Fairtrade goods, believe in human rights, or are concerned about climate change -
- put your money where your mouth is and open an ethical bank account too.
Financial institutions make all sorts of offers to get students through their doors, from discounts to vouchers to bags of freebies. But these short-term gestures can mask long-term issues.
How would you feel if your money was being used to prop up oppressive regimes, test cosmetics on animals or damage the environment?
What are the issues?
Before you open a new student bank account, or if you want to find out about your current bank’s green and ethical credentials, you should consider the following:
Lending
Banks don't just lend money to current account-holding customers, they also lend to large corporations, public institutions and even governments. Would you approve if your bank was lending money to a company with a poor track record on human rights or one manufacturing arms for use in war zones?
Climate Change and Environment
Financial institutions have an impact in these areas, not just in terms of who they lend to or invest in, but how they run their own operations. It is important to find out what your bank or insurance provider is doing to improve its environmental performance as a business: have they pledged to go carbon neutral for example? Or do they offer any green products to their customers?
Equal Opportunities
A lot of people believe that equal opportunity in the work place is now the norm, but there is still a massive pay gap between men and women doing the same jobs across most industries, including finance. Also the number of women in high level positions is still significantly lower. Not only that but some companies’ equal opportunities policies don’t take other key issues like sexuality and disability into consideration.
Financial Exclusion
There are an estimated two million adults in the UK without even the most basic bank account. Is your bank doing anything to address this situation?
For more details see our Financial Exclusion section.
Responsible Credit
Does your bank, credit card provider or insurance company take care to appropriately target and market its products? Does it offer assistance to customers in financial difficulty? Some credit card providers may not treat their customers responsibly – issuing cards to people who’ll struggle to make their repayments and not offering help to those who do fall behind.
What are the ethical options?
There are a few banks, building societies and insurance companies with well-recognised green and ethical credentials. The examples listed below for banking and saving also scored the highest marks on ethical lending in our research:
Banking
- The Co-operative Bank: this institution provides student banking, insurance and credit cards facilities and has an ethical lending policy that extends across all its business operations.
- Smile: this internet arm of the Co-operative Bank and also offers student accounts.
Saving
- Triodos: this bank offers green and ethical savings accounts. Its commercial lending is primary to green businesses.
- Ecology: this mutual building society offers a range of green savings accounts and mortgage options and its commercial lending is mainly to small, green businesses.
Insurance
- Co-operative Insurance
Insurance type: home, motor, life and health
This company offers a wide range of insurance products and has an extensive ethical engagement policy governing who it will provide cover to. - Climate Sure
Insurance type: travel
Climate Sure calculates the CO2 produced by flying overseas and pays for it to be 'offset' by funding sustainable energy projects. - Green Insurance Company
Insurance type: motor
This provider aims to offset your car's carbon emissions and offers discounts on greener cars/lower mileage. - Naturesave
Insurance types: home, travel, personal accident and illness insurance
This company puts 10% of its personal insurance premiums in a fund (Naturesave Trust) to benefit environmental and conservation projects. It also offers a free environmental performance review for commercial clients and aims to use suppliers that support sustainable business practices.
Credit Cards
Before signing up to a card you should check out the ethical credentials of its provider. Visit our credit card section for more information.
Your next steps
See our Next Steps Guide - Student Finance for information on finding the best green and ethical service provider for you, how to switch accounts and how contact your bank or insurance company about their policies.
Student Finance Search
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Citibank (UK)
Green/Ethical Products
- Community lending and investment (through Citibank and Citi Financial)
- Microfinance (through Citi Microfinance)
- Energy Efficient Mortgage (US only)
Ethical Lending or Insurance
Citigroup has an Environmental and Social Risk Management (ESRM) policy which indicates that the bank prohibits activities or transactions that involve significant conversion or degradation of ‘critical habitat’ or that utilise forced labour or child labour. The policy draws on elements of the Equator Principles, the International Finance Corporation’s Performance Standards and Environmental, Health and Safety (EHS) Guidelines. Additionally, Citigroup states that it has sector specific standards on Sustainable Forestry and Nuclear-Related transactions.
Responsible Lending
1. Credit Lending
Citibank does not offer mortgage products (secured loans) to UK customers.
In terms of conducting checks into the credit history of customers seeking unsecured credit, the bank states that it ‘may’ check the information provide by customers with credit reference agencies or fraud prevention agencies.
No policy to prevent offering unrequested increases in credit limits to customers was found. The bank states that it will set a credit limit for accounts and keep customers informed what it is and that it may change this credit limit at any time but will inform customers of any such unrequested change.
2. Debt Warning
No prevalent debt warnings were found.
No evidence was that the bank uses the FSA Debt Test or an equivalent. This facility is designed to help customers find out whether they have, or are likely to have, problems with borrowing. It also has tips on what to do if customers find themselves in difficulty.
3. Debt Management and Advice
No information was found regarding the bank’s policies on payment default and handling payment problems or the stages involved in repossession or court action. No information was found regarding the possibility of payment breaks for customers in financial difficulty either.
Financial Exclusion
Citibank does not make many provisions for financially excluded customers in the UK. In the US however it introduced ATM text-to-speech technology and talking ATMs in 2001.
Citi Microfinance Business Unit provides financial products and services to Microfinance Institutions (MFIs).
Citigroup also offers community lending products, primarily in the US.
Environment
Citibank address the key issues of energy efficiency and waste management in their environment policy. The bank also shows a commitment to improving performance in the long term.
Carbon Neutral
Citibank states that its absolute goal is to reduce the global emissions of its business operations by 10% from the 2005-level by the year 2011. This commitment does not qualify for rating against our criteria.
Equal Opportunities
Citibank’s equal opportunities policy addresses the key issues of race, gender, disability and sexuality.
Women on the Board
The bank reports a figure of 13.3% for 2008.
Charitable Giving
Citibank donated 0.89% of its pre-tax profits in 2007.
Citibank (UK)
- Current Accounts
- Savings
- Investments
- Credit Cards
- Loans
- Student Current Account
Citibank (UK)
Citibank (UK)
Customer Service Team
PO Box 49930
London
SE5 7XT
