Alternative Bank Switzerland
Open-knowledge reference entry
Alternative Bank Switzerland (ABS) is a sustainability-oriented bank based in Olten, Canton of Solothurn, in Switzerland. Its headquarters are situated in the former building of the Walter Verlag.
History
In March 2009, eleven ethical banks formed a global alliance to strengthen alternatives to the crisis-shaken conventional financial model. The new network was launched in the Netherlands, and ABS was a founding member of the Global Alliance for Banking on Values. The members also include Bangladesh (BRAC Bank), Peru (Mibanco), USA (ShoreBank Corporation), Germany (GLS Bank) and Mongolia (XacBank) comprising, as of 2009, about 12,000 million Swiss francs assets and seven million customers in 20 countries to form the Global Alliance. Its goals include solidar economic cooperation, long-term action and responsible income.
ABS offers to their customers a bank account to support microfinancing, the so-called Oikocredit-Förderkonto in co-operation with international partners. To provide this account, in November 2016 the Netherlands-based Oikocredit announced partnership with ABS. Oikocredit is thus financing partner organizations in over 70 developing and emerging countries. These, for example, grant small loans to women to build up self-employment or loans to small businesses. ABS jointly promotes sustainable development and guarantees the balances on the promotion account to the same extent as for a savings account.
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This entry incorporates text from “Alternative Bank Switzerland” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.