Move Your Money Month begins – pledge to move your money
Date: 1 March 2012
Guest post from the Move Your Money campaign
On-going bonus culture, failing to meet lending targets to small business and increasing customer complaints has been the narrative for the exasperated public this February. Post the financial crisis, behaviour in the city hasn’t changed and it’s high time something was done about it.
We look at our neighbours in the US and Europe, with thriving local banking sectors and supportive government policy, hear the call from the Federation of Small Business for radical change, and we realise we could, and must, have something better.
March 2012 is Move Your Money Month. We’re calling for people to move their money from the five big banking groups into local, mutual and ethical alternatives.
There is a large network of credit unions, building societies, ethical banks and community development finance institutions in this country that keep our money safe and offer competitive rates, while investing responsibly.
Change and progress are preceded by action, individual and collective, and local banking systems thrive when we support them. Since the financial crisis the alternative sector has grown considerably. Several ethical banks have seen their balance sheets double, and savings in credit unions increased by 300% over the last decade. In the US, 10 million people have moved to local financial institutions since 2010. Move Your Money isn’t about ‘bringing down’ the big banks (they can do that just fine by themselves, thank you). This is about strengthening the alternatives and creating a more diverse system that works in the interest of wider society.
As part of Move Your Money Month we’ll be launching our own ‘ISA page’, starting projects working in schools and with the National Union of Students and collecting signatures for an EDM. We’ll be linking up with interested groups around the country, encouraging local action and supporting events at credit unions. We’ll be collecting the stories of pledgers, inspiring others, and asking for your best ‘I’m cutting up my bank card now’ photos.
This March, whether it’s moving your current account, savings account, ISA or other financial product, make sure you’re part of building the solution. A system that is useful and secure; as well as economically, socially and environmentally fit for purpose.
Tell your friends (you can pick a day to switch together), spread the word, get involved and this month, make sure ‘moving your money’ gets off the ‘to do’ list, and into the diary. It’s time to make British banking better.
