Finansol: the story of virtuous
money
Thursday morning lecture
CTBC Financial Management College
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Finansol (financial + solidarity): 1997 French initiative to reinvest the
circulation of money with highly recognized social value
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financial investment trying to win a new, positive social image and
(predictably) to capitalize on it
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wedding profit with social virtue (socially desirable projects)
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creating employment
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curbing homelessness & squalor
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development of biological agriculture (health-enhancing)
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renewable energies
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spreading entrepreneurial spirit to less developed countries
Finansol similar to Fair Trade: it designs financial products that, apart
from yielding profits, promote noble social causes
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does not sell its own financial products but endorses others’
• two main types of products eligible for Finansol label:
1. solidarity of investment (all, or just part of the financing must go
toward projects of strong social utility)
2. sharing (all, or part of the profits—at least 25%—directed to
common-good projects)
• the Finansol-label products not listed with the stock exchange
• most common Finansol products: savings accounts, bonds, term deposits,
insurance policies, micro-loans, investors’ clubs, etc.
• HIW: a Finansol label granted to financial products that meet the set of
criteria initially agreed upon
• basically, Finansol proposes an alternative economy based on equitable
principles as opposd to the cut-throat one we have
• moving from profitable for very few to profitable for all/many
• the term ‘reinventing finance’ used
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Finansol's activities complementary to those of private banks and
public institutions (government-supported), not their replacement
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addressing the exploding social and environmental needs of
humankind nowadays
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not having a conscience turns out to be very expensive (i.e. socially
and environmentally destructive); how to reduce this expense?
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all over the world, people ask to get involved in changing their ways of
eating, treating others, participating in decision-making, transporting,
etc.; the financial sector challenged to respond to this growing
demand
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finance: from an end in itself to an instrument for reaching other ends
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profit can be maximized while promoting the common good
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as French presidential elections approach, Finansol weighs in
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the goal: to make Finansol a 100% political project
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political agents expected to change the scale of this solidarity
economy (presently only 0.19% of France’s finance is Finansol)
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giving a new social meaning to entrepreneurial initiative
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online petition to incite political agents to promote Finansol