Since the recession, the reputation of banks has crashed even harder than the pound.
Whether deservedly so or not, bankers are associated with greed and self-interest.
But a lender on the High Street in Tonbridge takes a different approach to finances. Describing themselves as ‘an ethical bank on a mission to use money for good’, the Charity Bank uses the funds that savers entrust to it to make loans to social enterprises.
And the bank has just received a £5million investment from Big Society Capital – an independent financial institution that provides finance to specialist banks.
The Chief Executive of Charity Bank, Patrick Crawford, welcomed the investment as a further signal of ‘no slowdown since the EU Referendum vote’.
Owned entirely by charitable foundations, the lender moved its headquarters to Tonbridge in 2005, recently moving again, in 2015, a few doors down to Fosse House.
Since its inception, the bank has lent over £150million pounds to charities in Kent and across the country, thus allowing organisations with smaller revenues to invest in big projects.
The Chairman of Charity Bank, George Blunden, said: “This investment gives us the capital we need to make loans to more social sector organisations.
“It provides a strong endorsement of what we do, and expresses confidence in our ethos and our future.
“This injection of capital will enable us to build on our track record of effective and responsible lending to charities and social enterprises.”
