By Sonia Felipe Larios, Director Marketing and Communication, Global Alliance for Banking on Values (GABV)
For decades, the banking sector has been assessed primarily through one lens: financial performance. Profitability, efficiency, and growth have dominated how success is defined and measured. Yet in a world facing deep social inequality, climate instability, and declining trust in institutions, this narrow view is no longer sufficient.
Today, banks are increasingly expected to demonstrate not only how much value they create, but for whom, at what cost, and towards what future. This shift is not just coming from regulators or civil society. It is being driven by customers, employees, investors, and communities who want finance to play a constructive role in addressing real-world challenges.
The Global Alliance for Banking on Values (GABV) is made up of 74 banks and credit unions around the world that believe finance can and should serve people and the planet. We see values-based banking not as an ideal state to be achieved, but as a conscious commitment: an intentional way of doing banking that seeks to do good and create positive social, environmental, and economic impact.
That belief is what led us to launch the Banking on Values Quick Scan: a short, practical self-assessment designed to help banks reflect to what extent their practices align with the Principles of Values Based Banking.
A practical entry point, not a verdict
The Banking on Values Quick Scan is not an audit, nor a rating, nor a compliance exercise. It is a self-assessment inspired by the GABV Scorecard, developed to offer financial institutions a first, accessible and informative step to better understand how their institution shapes up in the world of values-based banking.
Banks can explore how closely their practices align with the six Principles of Values-Based Banking, the shared foundation that unites GABV members across regions, business models, and sizes. The result is a customised report that highlights strengths, gaps, and opportunities for progress, helping to start informed internal conversations.
Crucially, the Quick Scan is designed for banks at any stage of the journey. Whether an institution is just beginning to explore sustainability or has already embedded social and environmental goals into its core strategy, the assessment provides clarity and high-level guidance for next steps in the journey to values-driven finance.
The six principles: a different definition of banking success
At the heart of the Quick Scan are the six Principles of Values-Based Banking, which together offer a holistic view of what responsible, resilient banking looks like in practice.
- Triple Bottom Line: People, planet, and prosperity
Values-based banks do not treat social and environmental impact as a side activity or a marketing add-on. Instead, impact is embedded in the business model itself. Profitremains essential but as a means to sustain purpose, not as an end in itself. The assessment invites banks to reflect on how profitability, impact, exclusion policies, and climate considerations are balanced in decision-making.
- Real economy focus
Rather thanprioritising speculative financial activities, values-based banks direct the majority of their assets towards the real economy: households, SMEs, social enterprises, renewable energy, and community infrastructure. The assessment asks where assets are deployed, and how closely funding is tied to productive, long-term economic activity.
- Client-centred relationships
Long-term, trust-based relationships are a defining feature of values-based banking. This principle explores whether products truly respond to client needs, whether risks and costs are communicated transparently, and whether customers are empowered to make informed choices.
- Long-term resilience
Impact withoutbeing financial sound is not sustainable. The Quick Scan therefore looks at core indicators of resilience, such as asset quality, capital adequacy, and governance structures that protect the institution’s mission over time. Resilience here is not about maximising short-term returns, but about ensuring stability through cycles and crises.
- Transparency and inclusive governance
Transparency builds trust. This principle examines what banksdisclose publicly, how clearly they report on both financial and non-financial performance, and whether diversity and inclusion are reflected at the governance level. It recognises that who sits at the table shapes the decisions that are made.
- Culture and leadership
Finally, values-based bankingis not sustained by policies alone. It lives in organisational culture. The assessment looks at leadership behaviour, staff participation, training priorities, pay structures, and engagement with policymakers — all indicators of whether values are truly embedded, or merely stated.
Together, these principles offer a coherent alternative to fragmented ESG approaches. They show that sustainability, ethics, and financial viability are not competing objectives, but interdependent ones.
What banks can learn from some honest introspection
One of the most powerful outcomes of the Quick Scan is not the score itself, but the conversations it sparks.
Banks often tell us that completing the full GABV Scorecard helps them:
- Identify misalignments between strategy and practice
- Clarify what “values-based banking” actually means for their institution
- Benchmark progress internally over time
- Engage leadership and teams around a shared framework
- Prioritise next steps in a crowded sustainability landscape.
For some, the results confirm that they are further along than expected. For others, they highlight gaps that have not yet been fully acknowledged. In both cases, the value lies in gaining a clearer, more honest picture, and using it as a basis for action.
An invitation to rethink the role of banking
The challenges we face today demand more from finance than incremental change. They require banks to rethink their purpose, their relationships, and their impact on the world around them.
The Banking on Values Quick Scan is an invitation to do just that; not by prescribing answers, but by encouraging reflection. It asks banks to look beyond slogans and reporting frameworks, and to examine how values show up in everyday decisions: in what is financed, how clients are treated, how risks are managed, and how success is defined.
When values lead, finance can become a force for inclusion, sustainability, and long-term prosperity. But that journey begins with a simple step: taking the time to ask the right questions.
