Ethical Banking: an alternative to tackle financial exclusion? The case study of FIARE

Abstract

Nowadays, while the financial system appears to be more widespread than ever, we note that a significant portion of the population (not only in less economically developed countries, but also in Europe and the United States) cannot access basic financial services offered by major banking providers, leaving these people out of the operating dynamic of their environment. As a result, we can deduce that financial exclusion is currently an issue of great interest worldwide, obviously for people involved in this situation, but also for the financial system, the enterprise network, public institutions and social organizations. The purpose of this paper is to contribute, through the exemplary case of FIARE, to strengthen alternatives with a high degree of social transformation like Ethical Banking. A qualitative research is carried out to study a local banking project and see its implications to for social and solidarity economy. The analysis detects strong and weak points and leads to an approach of the suitability of this initiative to tackle financial exclusion in the post-crisis period.