Tuesday, 14 October 2008

I moved my current account in May out of what we will call Bank X, after more than 25 years, not for reasons of high finance but because:
  1. Bank X had a policy of investing heavily in oil and gas exploration, regardless of what that did to the environment or whether that meant they were propping up governments like the Burmese junta;
  2. (and this was the last straw) Bank X was paying its London cleaners less than the minimum wage.
I moved the account to Bank Y, which is not a big flashy bank at all but does have a policy of not behaving like that. Bank X is one of the ones that has just collapsed spectacularly. Nobody has mentioned its behaviour towards its cleaners in the analysis of the last few weeks, but I think it is not entirely a coincidence, and I think that is to do with relationships and trust.

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