The decade of successes and GABV influence European Chapter
European banks were strongly represented at the founding of the Global Alliance for Banking on Values in 2009, with five banks out of the initial ten members mainly from Western Europe. Today, the share of European banks in the GABV has been reduced thanks to the huge expansion in the other continents. However, expansion has also been very strong in Europe, increasing the reach of the GABV thanks to a better geographical spread including banks in Central and Eastern Europe. At the end of 2019, there are 18 member banks in the European chapter representing total assets under management of about USD 72 billion, and more than 8,200 co-workers. Although there were regular meetings of values-based banks in Europe for many years, the European member banks have organised formal annual European Chapter meetings since 2013. Meetings have taken place in France, Italy, Denmark, Switzerland, Spain, Serbia and Sweden. These chapter meetings enable CEOs to meet each other and share opportunities and challenges of values-based banking. Recurrent themes discussed during these meetings are the advocacy for value-based banking, the network expansion, transparency and impact reporting, training of values-based bankers, the challenge of increasing regulation and supervision and how to demonstrate the specificity of valuesbased banking. The European chapter meeting is also the occasion to present values-based banking locally to a broader community. A public event takes place at most of the chapter meetings, with keynote speakers and panel discussions combining prominent representatives of the academic world, central bankers, members of parliament, NGO’s, and the business and finance community. The expansion of the network increases the variety of members banks and brings new perspectives from different parts of Europe. The banks participate in the strategic projects of the GABV, such
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GABV Annual Report 2019
