5 ms·

This is great. I'm not a Muslim, but learning that there are banks that don't invest in arms and tobacco - this is great news, and I guess I'll take a closer l

by mmjaa 8y ago

This is great. I'm not a Muslim, but learning that there are banks that don't invest in arms and tobacco - this is great news, and I guess I'll take a closer look at halal banking soon. For too long I've been bothered by the fact that I don't have much say in where my funds are invested by the 'normal banks' - the fact that there is an option for those of us who don't want to participate in the military-industrial-pharmaceutical complex, is indeed great news.

TheSpiceIsLife 8y ago
Hopefully, like high protein yogurt and paleo brownies, this will catch on and the larger institutions will offer options to their retail customers.
- codeulike 8y ago
  But it doesn't really make sense unless its organisation-wide
  - TheSpiceIsLife 8y ago
    Why is that? If I take all my money to an ethical (for whatever definition of ethical) institution, or I nominate an ethical profile with my current institution, the same amount of money is doing the same thing, no?
codeulike 8y ago
See also Ethical Banking, here's a list of regular banks in the USA who dont lend to certain industries: https://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/banking/socially-responsible-banks/ https://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/banking/socially-responsible... Maybe its not a very big thing in the USA. Ethical Banking is pretty big in the UK.
- tialaramex 8y ago
  Big enough that, for example, the Money Saving Expert site, a popular independent comparison site for savings accounts and similar products, has a separate category if you decide you only want good savings IF they are with an ethical bank. e.g. You can get about 1.5% interest by choosing the best rates (whereas many popular banks offer 0.1% or lower) but the ethical option is 1.35% from Yorkshire Building Society (which is a mutual so your money is being spent buying houses for people and both you & they share the profits from operations). Lots of people will decide that actually not supporting dubious industries is worth 0.15% interest. Not least because the mutuals tend to have fewer aggressive anti-consumer practices, after all the consumers own them so that would be kinda crazy.
ElBarto 8y ago
They don't invest in arms and tobacco. But where do you think all those extremist muslim organisations get their money from? You're trading the tobacco industry for the guys in the middle east and Pakistan...
- tareqak 8y ago
  These banks are UK banks that required by UK banking laws to know their customers (KYC [0]) and follow all applicable anti-money laundering laws. Every journalist in every news organization, mainstream or alternative, would love to break that sort of news if it were true. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Know_your_customer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Know_your_customer
  - ElBarto 8y ago
    Most of them, if not all, have links with the middle East or other muslim countries. Either they are subsidiaries of middle eastern banks, or were funded by middle eastern investors. As a Westerner and an atheist, ethics to me is staying far away from these organisations.
    - tareqak 8y ago
      I respect your choice, and I sincerely hope you treat the Western institutions that behave as reprehensibly as some Middle Eastern ones in a similar fashion.
    - roywiggins 8y ago
      Big Western banks are infamous for abetting drug cartel money laundering- you won't avoid nasty stuff just by avoiding middle eastern banks. https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/outrageous-hsbc-settlement-proves-the-drug-war-is-a-joke-230696/ https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/outrageo...
- mmjaa 8y ago
  I'm quite content with investing in the Middle East and Pakistan over the 'tobacco guys'. One group has been responsible for wilfully murdering hundreds of thousands of innocent people, including children, for decades. The other group is just likely to follow a religion I'm not a member of ..

by mmjaa 8y ago

TheSpiceIsLife 8y ago

Hopefully, like high protein yogurt and paleo brownies, this will catch on and the larger institutions will offer options to their retail customers.

codeulike 8y ago
But it doesn't really make sense unless its organisation-wide
- TheSpiceIsLife 8y ago
  Why is that? If I take all my money to an ethical (for whatever definition of ethical) institution, or I nominate an ethical profile with my current institution, the same amount of money is doing the same thing, no?

codeulike 8y ago

See also Ethical Banking, here's a list of regular banks in the USA who dont lend to certain industries: https://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/banking/socially-responsible-banks/ https://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/banking/socially-responsible... Maybe its not a very big thing in the USA. Ethical Banking is pretty big in the UK.

tialaramex 8y ago
Big enough that, for example, the Money Saving Expert site, a popular independent comparison site for savings accounts and similar products, has a separate category if you decide you only want good savings IF they are with an ethical bank. e.g. You can get about 1.5% interest by choosing the best rates (whereas many popular banks offer 0.1% or lower) but the ethical option is 1.35% from Yorkshire Building Society (which is a mutual so your money is being spent buying houses for people and both you & they share the profits from operations). Lots of people will decide that actually not supporting dubious industries is worth 0.15% interest. Not least because the mutuals tend to have fewer aggressive anti-consumer practices, after all the consumers own them so that would be kinda crazy.

ElBarto 8y ago

They don't invest in arms and tobacco. But where do you think all those extremist muslim organisations get their money from? You're trading the tobacco industry for the guys in the middle east and Pakistan...

tareqak 8y ago
These banks are UK banks that required by UK banking laws to know their customers (KYC [0]) and follow all applicable anti-money laundering laws. Every journalist in every news organization, mainstream or alternative, would love to break that sort of news if it were true. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Know_your_customer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Know_your_customer
- ElBarto 8y ago
  Most of them, if not all, have links with the middle East or other muslim countries. Either they are subsidiaries of middle eastern banks, or were funded by middle eastern investors. As a Westerner and an atheist, ethics to me is staying far away from these organisations.
  - tareqak 8y ago
    I respect your choice, and I sincerely hope you treat the Western institutions that behave as reprehensibly as some Middle Eastern ones in a similar fashion.
  - roywiggins 8y ago
    Big Western banks are infamous for abetting drug cartel money laundering- you won't avoid nasty stuff just by avoiding middle eastern banks. https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/outrageous-hsbc-settlement-proves-the-drug-war-is-a-joke-230696/ https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/outrageo...
mmjaa 8y ago
I'm quite content with investing in the Middle East and Pakistan over the 'tobacco guys'. One group has been responsible for wilfully murdering hundreds of thousands of innocent people, including children, for decades. The other group is just likely to follow a religion I'm not a member of ..