Published: December 15, 2022
For nearly 40 years, we have supported like-minded businesses that share our values and want to make a positive difference to local communities across the UK. This year we joined the Global Alliance for Banking on Values (GABV) to understand the impact that banks like ours are having across the world.
This global network of sustainable banks shares a vision of using banking to make positive change happen. In November 2022, Unity Trust Bank’s CEO Deborah Hazell, along with over 50 GABV participants from more than 20 countries, attended the Annual Meeting in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Together, these pioneering leaders explored how values-based banks, like Unity, can embed transformational banking in different contexts.
The meeting of minds
GABV members met with the Speaker of the House, Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury, to hear her support for women’s empowerment and sustainability in finance within the region and visited Bangladeshi garment factories to understand how local banks are helping to drive better working conditions and influence positive change.
Another highlight of the meeting was connecting with the Global Director of the UN World Food Programme, who was attending COP27. He spoke to GABV members about the critical role that finance plays in addressing the global worldwide food crisis.
At this first in-person meeting since the pandemic, members also celebrated #BankingOnValues Day on 10 November, acknowledging how GABV member banks can contribute towards transformation change. In this year’s campaign, values-based banks revealed their real impact behind eight big words – intentional, coherent, contextual, transparent, systematic, authentic, inclusive, and ambitious.
Unity Trust Bank has always had a ‘double bottom line’ strategy, meaning we are able to be both a well-run bank with a growing balance sheet and one that has already changed the futures of tens of thousands of people across the UK. The Global Alliance for Banking on Values’ Annual Meeting has further renewed our focus and given Unity more of a global perspective on how banking can create real impact across the world.
