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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Santander
Green/Ethical Products
- Offers responsible and sustainable products in each of the countries it operates. Incorporates ethical, social and environmental aspects as well as financial.
- Financing of electric vehicles and low carbon emissions.
- Financing for environmental and renewable products.
This information is from the group website not the UK company website and may not be available in the UK.
Ethical Lending or Insurance
In the social and environmental assessment Grupo Santander, will take the following factors into account:
- Nature of the products and services offered to customers.
- Countries where Grupo Santander and its customers are present.
Grupo Santander will not accept the following customer categories:
- Companies that do not support or respect internationally recognised basic human rights, within their area of influence
- Companies that do not abide by labour standards, and in particular, those that imposes hard or forced labour on minors.
- Companies that refuse to provide requested documentation or information.
Grupo Santander will not lend money to or insure companies operating in the following areas:
- Agricultural or fishing activity in protected areas.
- Deforestation of protected or high conservation or extraction value forests, and sale of types of native woods that do not have an ecological certificate issued by a third party.
- Extraction of asbestos or manufacturing products that contain asbestos.
- Trading with protected animal species.
- Manufacturing or distributing nuclear arms, anti-personnel mines or cluster bombs.
Which transactions this policy covers is not clear from the group website.
The Bank also has a range of sectorial policies which sets out criteria for financial activities connected with: defence, water. Energy and forestry sectors.
For example the defence policy says that Banco Santander will not finance projects related to arms manufacturing, trade or distribution of anti-personnel mines, cluster bombs or nuclear, chemical or biological weapons. In line with this, the Bank asks clients who could be connected with this sector to sign a declaration of conformity with its defence sector policy.
The Risk Units are responsible for assessing the social and environmental risks of the projects submitted by the different Committees for their approval. These projects must be consistent with this policy and any other policies that maybe approved by the Group on a sector level.
Santander considers social and environmental aspects in the risk analysis and decision-making processes pivotal in their financing operations. The adherence to the Equator Principles has as first objective, prior to funding, to identify and prevent the project’s negative social and environmental impacts and in the event that the impacts are unavoidable, reduce, mitigate or adequately offset them.
Human Rights
Grupo Santander will not accept the following customer categories:
- Companies that do not support or respect internationally recognised basic human rights, within their area of influence.
- Companies that do not abide by labour standards, and in particular, those that imposes hard or forced labour on minors.
- Companies that refuse to provide requested documentation or information.
The Bank will periodically verify its application and assess the risk of non-compliance in the environments in which it operates.
Additionally, in the initial stages of project funding analysis, the Bank will take into consideration the impact on human rights, without prejudice the application of the rest of the criteria normally applied in the Bank's ordinary procedures for customer acceptance.
In due diligence procedures prior to entering into cooperation or any other kinds of agreements within the scope of the Equator Principles, Santander undertakes to evaluate, as part of its analysis process, the human rights policies and practices of its counterparties.
The Bank's Internal Auditing is responsible for verifying compliance with this Policy.
Financial Exclusion
Provides funding for the Money Advice Trust (MAT), operator of the National Debtline and Business Debtline. These services provide free, confidential and independent advice to consumers and small businesses on how to deal with debt problems.
Offers Basic Accounts for first time or those not confident in managing their money.
Launched an improved ‘Financial Difficulties’ website for providing advice to customers in financial difficulty. Developed a new Financial Difficulties Guide in association with Payplan to provide further advice and support for customers in financial difficulty.
Through their ‘Affordable Credit’ scheme they provide small loans at reasonable interest rates from credit unions and CDFI’s. Aimed at low income customers in the UK.
MK Credit Union has banked a £10,000 donation from the Santander Foundation to expand the services they offer to clients who are in financial difficulty.
Offers the following:
- Mobile Banking Scheme
- Youth Bank Accounts for under 18’s
- Offers Hearing loops fitted in branches
- Written correspondence in different formats (Braille, Large Print, and Audio).
- Text Relay
- Online and Telephone Banking.
- Sign Language Interpreters.
- Partnership with the Post Office to offer services through their branches.
Santander operates microcredit programmes in many Latin American countries including Brazil, Chile and El Salvador. Santander has over 250,000 entrepreneurs working with microfinance of over €300 million credited.
No evidence found that the company invests in or lends at lower rates to financially excluded communities.
Environment
Santander UK’s environmental policy covers the key areas of climate change, energy efficiency, water use and waste management.
Committed to setting objectives to achieve continues improvement. Regularly reporting on performance to stakeholders. Use of independent review.
Carbon Neutral
No commitment to become fully carbon neutral was found.
Equal Opportunities
Santander UK’s diversity policy takes into consideration the key equality issues of race, gender, sexuality, and disability.
Women on the Board
Santander UK:
2/12 women hold top level board positions (17%).
Parent Company:
3/17 women hold top level board positions (18%).
Voluntary Standards & Initiatives
Santander is a member of the following initiatives / standards:
- Business in the Community (a business-led charity focused on promoting responsible business practice) and its Opportunity Now and Race for Opportunity initiatives.
Santander UK is not a signatory on its own however its parent company the Santander Group is a member of or signatory to the following relevant charter or initiatives:
- The Equator Principles (guidelines from the International Finance Corporation).
- United Nations: Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
- UN Global Compact: United Nations Global Compact.
- UNEP Finance Initiative: Financial Initiative for the United Nations Environment Programms.
- EC Code of Conduct for European companies operating in developing countries.
- OECD Guidelines for multinational companies.
- ILO Tripartite Declaration on multinational companies and social policy.
- Kyoto Protocol on climate change.
Charitable Giving
Through Moneywise programme provided donations of £1 million to charities specialising in supporting financial education.
The Santander UK Foundation provides donations, and undertake volunteering and fundraising for projects that support disadvantaged people.
Santander UK Foundation and the Santander Universities programme provided £6,008,463 in support to the community sectors in 2009
Donated £28 million to UK charities since 1990 through the Foundation. In 2009, they made 1,500 donations, to both small local charities such as Scout Groups and large national charities such as Macmillan Cancer Care, totalling over £3.28 million of grants.
In the UK, community activities feature employee fundraising campaigns which provide support to local and national charities. In 2009 they launched their ‘Charity of the Year’ programme, raising £140,000 for Great Ormond Street Hospital and £210,000 for Help the Hospices. In 2010 they raised £380,000 for Cancer Research UK.
Santander
- Current Account
- Savings
- Investments
- Credit Cards
- Loans
- Mortgages
- Insurance
- Private Pension Fund
- Student Current Account
Santander
Santander UK Plc.
Registered Office:
2 Triton Square,
Regent's Place,
London,
NW1 3AN,
United Kingdom.
