Building better banks

Industry Relations

We’re in a time of a public health crisis, widespread inequality, accelerating climate change and financial distress. The banking industry must address these challenges with robust solutions for the public good. Our team works in collaboration with banks and industry associations to develop and spread equitable banking standards, scale best practices and solutions, and empower bank leaders. Together, we can build a just economy, ensure the long-term health and resiliency of all stakeholders, and position banks as agents of positive social and environmental change.

A case study series on purpose-driven financial institutions

Check out our new Building Better Banks series.

Building Better Banks

Raising the standard

We believe that banks, as financiers for all industries, must take action to reduce the carbon footprint of their investments. In order to do so, banks should measure, disclose, and set targets to reduce their contributions to greenhouse gas emissions and ecological destruction. The Partnership for Carbon Accounting Financials (PCAF) is the first public report outlining a methodology to measure these greenhouse gas contributions. Our Impact team played a key role in creating a PCAF for American and Canadian financial institutions. An exciting digital tool is forthcoming, but until it is released, we encourage banks to measure the carbon footprint of their investments using the report’s methodology.

The business case for socially responsible banking

The Global Alliance for Banking on Values (GABV), an organization representing a network of the world’s leading values-based banks, released an updated research report reinforcing the business case for the growing values-based banking movement. Read it here.

Interested in learning more about Beneficial State Bank’s model? Check out the bank’s 2018 Impact Report here.

Building our community

As a bank holding company of Beneficial State Bank, we are members of several banking associations. We believe that engaging with conventional and social impact banks enables us to develop strategic relationships, identify and share tools and resources, and strengthen the bench of mission-aligned bank leaders. Our memberships include:

For both Beneficial State Foundation and Beneficial State Bank, our membership in and payments to specific trade associations or other organizations does not mean that we endorse every position or issue that these organizations may support. In addition, we are passionate and dedicated to our mission and values so if we do have differing views on significant issues, we will reach out to such organizations directly or in other ways and continually evaluate the overall benefit of our continued memberships.

Let’s connect!

We enjoy supporting and learning from our colleagues in the industry, and we welcome honest, courageous conversations on how we can all contribute to positive social and environmental change. Whether you are a bank leader or director, work on an ESG or Corporate Social Responsibility team, drive your bank’s business strategy, or view yourself as a change agent at your bank, you have a role to play in our movement. We’d love to work with you.