Social Responsibility in Banking: An Oxymoron?

Last night this was the hot question at CABE’s annual Hugh Kay lecture. John Varley of Barclays addressed the question and through this and the following conversation it was concluded that this is not an oxymoron. The lecture began by addressing the concept that circumstances present choices but choices must be made responsibly. I believe that where we have the relative luxury of choice we have a responsibility to make that choice in a way which reflects the needs and interest of those who may not have choice. So for example for me this may be about having the choice of which coffee to buy and choosing to buy a fair trade certified coffee.

We were also told that wealth generation in a country increases as the percentage of the population who have a bank account increases. Growth requires entrepreneurs, such as fair trade producers, and those willing to lend money to these entrepreneurs, such as Shared Interest in the case of fair trade. John Varley believes that investment banking is vital for the real economy, saying that if we switch off investment banking we switch off growth of businesses and economies. He continued by indicating that it is the responsibility of banks to engender progress and growth, to lend responsibly and be responsible to customers. Banks should invest in and for the future, investing in the communities of their customers.

We were then introduced to the Quaker values including prudence and philanthropy which had been particularly pertinent in a letter received by John Varley following the ‘economic crisis’. He concluded by saying that for Barclays Corporate Social Responsibility is about sustainability and that this is not an exclusive policy but should be part of day to day work in the bank and the brand of Barclays. An interesting thought when applied to any organisation of any size or scale. If we are to truly believe that sustainability is part of what banking is and will be about I think we need to watch this space….