The Global Alliance for Banking on Values (GABV) influences the financial sector so that it serves people and the environment through specific actions and agreements.
One key way we nudge, and sometimes push, the financial system in a more sustainable direction is by playing an active role on bodies that determine the rules that the banking system has to follow, and by actively participating in the development and application of commitments made by the wider banking sector.
We engage through
Advocacy
The GABV conducts research and advocacy on selected topics that are relevant to values-based banking and where it can contribute with its rich experience and practical examples.
Our annual research report “Real Economy, Real Returns” looks at the relationship between financial resilience and the values driving banking decisions.
Awareness Raising
#BankingOnValues Day is an international campaign that calls on all GABV members, partners, customers, and interested, passionate, policymakers, regulators and public, to get involved in celebrating the growing, global movement. Past campaigns focused on highlighting the powerful, positive impact by sharing inspiring stories from our members.
Partnerships and Collaboration
Advocacy
Through position papers on global issues and key topics, the GABV contributes to the discussion of the role and responsibility of the financial sector, based on the policies and practices of its member banks.
Values Regulation Europe (the VALoRE Project) is a high impact research and advocacy initiative to positively influence European regulation on sustainable finance. The initiative is possible with the support of the Open Society Foundations.
More about our Advocacy.
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Values Regulation Europe, which is knowned as the VALoRE Project, has two core components:
1. The collection of best practices of GABV banks to inform the design, implementation, and monitoring of social sustainability and impact of banking products and services, and;
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2. The dissemination and advocacy of this information before high-level experts and officials in the EU and selected member countries. The project represents a new opportunity to inform the future of banking. We are taking important steps to meet our commitment to lead the transformation of the financial system through this European initiative, which is expected to have significant global implications.
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Read our reports case studies under the VALoRe project:
- MagNet Bank Case Study.
- The Social Impact Model of Values-Based Banks summary.
Read our reply to EU open consultation on Social Taxonomy.
Awareness Raising
In the spirit of grassroots campaigning and empowering citizens with meaningful information, recent campaigns asked the public to stop, think and ask if their bank share their standards and ethics. And to act by moving to a values-based bank if they don’t.
#BankingOnValues Day takes place every year in November: bankingonvaluesday.com.
Partnerships and Collaboration
We also partner on an ad-hoc basis with a number of like-minded organisations committed to building a just transition. They include the WWF, Sustainable Finance Lab, World Benchmarking Alliance and Climate Safe Lending among many others.
Find out our partnerships to change finance.
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The GABV is an active member of two key ISO panels where we influence a developing terminology that make it easier for stakeholders to understand what Sustainable Finance really is (and what it is not). If the financial system is more transparent about its impact, using this emerging glossary, we can expect the system to move further, faster in a more sustainable direction.
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The GABV collaborates with several networks and partners, to monitor the development of the European taxonomy for sustainable finance, part of the Sustainable Finance Action Plan. This matters because classifying what is ‘sustainable’ and what’s not, is a key first step to delivering real change in the financial system. Our work in this area is generously funded by the Open Society Initiative for Europe (OSIFE).While based in Europe, much of the international banking system is looking to see how this work develops and whether it can be inspiration for other regions.
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The GABV proactively contributes to the Principles for Responsible Banking of the United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative (UNEP FI), which aims to raise the bar among mainstream banks so they act more responsibly. We do this by meaningful and regular engagement with the UNEP FI Team. The GABV provides inputs on what might constitute collective progress and success for UNEP FI PRB’s signatories, some of whom are GABV members already, offering a model for the highest standards of green, just and resilient banking.
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The GABV subscribes to the Change Finance Coalition, an action-oriented civil society network of non-profit organisations and activists from more than 67 countries on six continents. Convened by the European NGO and GABV Supporting Partner, Finance Watch, this network brings together people and organisations to build a consistent and compelling story about why finance needs to change to address the greatest social, economic, and environmental challenges of our time.
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The GABV is an active partner in the Partnership for Carbon Accounting Financials (PCAF), an industry-led initiative that helps financial institutions assess and disclose the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from their loans and investments. Created in 2015 by Dutch financial institutions, the GABV helped globalise the PCAF methodology among its members in The Netherlands and North America in 2018, and scaled up globally in 2019 via the GABV’s Climate Change Commitment. Our role as partners of PCAF is to represent the views of frontrunner banks in the Steering Committee and to help provide traction to PCAF at a global scale through our international network.
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The GABV has joined the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosure (TNFD) Forum. This Taskforce develops and delivers a risk management and disclosure framework for organisations to report and act on evolving nature-related risks. The TNFD Forum is intended to support the work of the Taskforce by ‘crowding-in’ access to a global, multi-disciplinary pool of technical expertise and practical market experience on which the Taskforce can draw to develop the framework.