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| Ergebnis ID 17404 | |||
| Zusammenfassung | The social responsibility of credit institutions in the EU : access, regulation and new products = Die soziale Verantwortung von Kreditinstituten in der EU : Zugang, Regulierung und neue Produkte = La responsabilité sociale des institutions financičres au sein de l'UE : Accés réglementation et produits nouveaux / Jan Evers ; Udo Reifner (Hrsg.) | ||
| Datenbank | Fachliteratur | ||
| Sachgruppen | KX/Alternat.Finanzierungsformen: microfinance; Bildungsfinanzierung, Kreditrisikohandel; reverse mortgage; Wertpapierkredite; KU/Unternehmensfinanzierung (inkl. Leasing und Factoring); zyiffBuch/iff Buchpublikationen | ||
| Schlagwörter | social investment; start ups; community investment; micro-lending; micro-credit; iff-Publikation | ||
| Länder/Regionen | 04EUDE/Deutschland | ||
| Autor/en | Evers, Jan ; Reifner, Udo (Hrsg.) | ||
| Stücktitel | The social responsibility of credit institutions in the EU : access, regulation and new products = Die soziale Verantwortung von Kreditinstituten in der EU : Zugang, Regulierung und neue Produkte = La responsabilité sociale des institutions financičres au sein de l'UE : Accés réglementation et produits nouveaux / Jan Evers ; Udo Reifner (Hrsg.) | ||
| Quelle | The social responsibility of credit institutions in the EU : access, regulation and new products = Die soziale Verantwortung von Kreditinstituten in der EU : Zugang, Regulierung und neue Produkte = La responsabilité sociale des institutions financičres au sein de l'UE : Accés réglementation et produits nouveaux / Jan Evers ; Udo Reifner (Hrsg.) | ||
| Verlag | Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft | ||
| Erscheinungsort | Baden Baden | ||
| ISBN | 378905587-5 | ||
| Anmerkung | Schriften des Institut für Finanzdienstleistungen e.V. ; Bd. 2 | ||
| Erscheinungsvermerk | 1. Auflage | ||
| Umfang | 447 | ||
| Erschienen | 1998-09-01 00:00:01 | ||
| Text | Executive Summary Assumptions (1) Banking has to be sound and safe for its customers as well as for the stability of the currency and economy. The development of European banking within the globalisation of financial services creates tendencies which may undermine stable economies. Both the effects of banking products and services as well as the absence of banking in certain areas, quarters and regions as well as among certain groups and citizens should be taken into consideration not only by the public or the bank authorities but also by the banks themselves. (2) A new approach in bank policy is required due mainly to two contradicting developments in financial services wherein an increasing need for financial services is contrasted with an increasing discrimination towards less profitable sectors of the economy. ˇ There is an increasing need of access to financial services for people of all classes and with different expectations because adequate access to financial services has become ˇ indispensable for many parts of economic and social life that were formerly available without access to bank services (i.e. retirement, payments, investment) ˇ a basic need for new forms of financed consumption, housing, job creation, small business and charitable work. ˇ more necessary because the welfare state is gradually reducing its scope in favour of more private responsibility of citizens which impacts on the use of financial services. ˇ The increasing need is contrasted with increasing pressure on banks and financial institutions to select clients, regions and areas more precisely according to cost-benefit criteria in a process of advanced competition which is driven through ˇ globalisation of financial services, ˇ deregulation of financial markets, ˇ privatisation of formerly public banks, ˇ informational technologies that render the identification of cost elements easier and further non-personal service provision, ˇ standardisation of retail banking and a trend to cost efficiency through bigger units. (3) Banks have always been viewed as semi-public institutions. The idea of social and public responsibility of banking is far from new. A multitude of forms, structures, ownership schemes as well as products and relations in which banks and financial institutions have tried to comply with such expectations are obvious and identified in this report. But in spite of this variety these aspects have remained partial and peripheral to banking itself which tends to diminish their effect at a time of major banking developments. The experience of the American Community Reinvestment Act and its implementation as a general tool to insert public responsibility into the microeconomic decision making process of banks has provided the incentive to review the European banking system and its approach to social responsibility and social economy banking. Findings (4) The present report has reviewed the banking system in three European countries: France, Germany and the United Kingdom, which may representatively stand for three different European traditions of banking: state administered banking, state influenced local banking and private banking. (5) In all three countries the importance of financial services for social and economic purposes of especially disfavoured regions and groups has increased while on the other hand access to adequate financial services has proved to be insufficient with respect to the needs of coping with increasing financial discrimination and poverty. ˇ Access to a personal bank account has become or remained difficult in all countries either through ˇ a formal exclusion of unwanted customers, ˇ bank closures and withdrawal from especially deteriorating inner city areas and rural areas, ˇ a demotivating fee system especially for payment incidents and defaults that hit primarily lower income customers. ˇ Individual home ownership is increasing in all countries confronting banks with the need of new clients that due to their low liquidity, instability in work, and incapacity to create equity in their homes do not fit into the traditional philosophy of mortgage lending and home savings schemes. ˇ Credit for small business start-ups is seen as a major tool for job creation in all countries. This contrasts with a tendency of banks to raise the minimum amount of credit, require a credit history or security that many customers cannot supply. Some small businesses as a result tend to resort to inadequate expensive forms of consumer credit for their investment. ˇ The problem is especially visible in the lack of micro-lending schemes in the banking sector. Promising models in use in the United States are supplied primarily by non-banks. ˇ Small business banking is still mostly defensive, automated and cautious instead of active and creative. ˇ The high involvement of governments in securing and funding small business credit in the early stages can sometimes be an obstacle to the creative development of more adequate forms of credit as well as less costly schemes of credit extension. ˇ Obtaining loan finance by charitable organisation has become a necessity for the development of such organisations. The United Kingdom report reveals that banks have problems to adapt to the specific forms of security such not-for-profit-institutions are able to provide. (6) The current bank regulatory systems differ significantly between all three countries. While the Banque de France has a net of supervisory agencies and a tradition in monitoring not only financial but also social aspects like consumer debt, the Bundesbank as well as the Kreditaufsichtsamt do not consider the equal distribution of access to financial services as a point of supervision. In principle also the Bank of England denies responsibility for the relation between banks and non-customers but has recently developed policy statements for adequate small business lending. The new European system of bank supervision is equally low key about the possibility of evaluating banking with respect to social effects. The French form of bank supervision, although having the widest authority towards consumers, does not include a collective approach to community reinvestment. Merely a supervisory approach to the assessment of banking in the community seems inadequate. (7) In Europe traditionally community responsibility of banks was more related to different models of bank ownership. But this ownership system is changing rapidly which again makes reflections about general models of community reinvestment necessary. ˇ The following bank types have shown a closer relationship to community reinvestment: ˇ In Germany, savings banks owned by local authorities play an important role in providing financial services to the community. ˇ In France La Poste still has a major role in the equal distribution of financial services while in Germany the privatisation of the Postbank has put an end to its similar role in the past. ˇ Mutuals play a similar role in France and Germany in so far as their client ownership links them specifically to their community. ˇ A variety of non-banks and near banks in the UK and France are especially designed for social purposes and community development. They are mostly small and decentralised with close links to the social sector. In Germany, a more rigid bank law prohibits such developments monopolising credit and payment facilities with the banks. ˇ Small decentralised financial institutions have been more likely to develop links to the local community or communities of interest and create new and adequate products than centralised institutions. But there are several reasons for larger banks to become strategically involved in community reinvestment and social economy banking: ˇ The higher transaction costs of small financial services providers have led to higher fees and interest rates which in some respect may harm their clients more than they help through providing access. ˇ Nearly all traditional small local authority banks are under pressure to achieve economy of scales, to cut their links to the public sector (privatisation) or concentrate on more profitable business. ˇ Focussing on low income areas and clients will be a competitive disadvantage in the future which will only be remedied if all banks were induced to behave likewise. ˇ Banking in low income areas needs additional skills, specialisation as well as a sufficiently large number of clients (in the case of personal customers) in order to justify the necessary research and product development. This often favours larger entities. (8) The American Community Reinvestment Act is a legislative tool to stir private banking into more concern for the social outcome of their business for the community. It is typical for the United States where the absence of public and state agencies in this area necessitates strong pressure on private banks to provide the desired public benefits. ˇ Administrative rules defining precisely how social effects should be measured and demonstrated may lead to a bureaucratic burden for banks and deviate their attention from the purpose of the required action to its administrative requirements. The new 1996/97 CRA approach leaving as much discretion as possible for its fulfilment to the banks themselves seems therefore to be more appropriate for European applications. ˇ Flexible regulations giving banks the opportunity to develop more positive incentives through the use of social banking procedures in marketing, product design and public relation may be more promising than bank supervision. ˇ European minimum standards for the social responsibility of bank products (usury ceilings, control of cost in default, rights to adaptation in difficult social situations etc.) should be combined with a system of reporting about social effect. ˇ The existing state owned banks, co-operative banks and specialised financial institutions with social purposes should be recognised in so far as they would get preferential treatment in community reinvestment regulation with regard to their special purposes and relations. Recommendations (9) The European banking system needs to develop more specific legal regulation for non-discrimination on social grounds which should be applied to banking as a private market business with public responsibility. The legal basis for anti-discrimination can be derived from the European Treaty, the reference to the general good in the Second Banking Directive or from the general principle of equal treatment of all EU citizens. (10) It is desirable to achieve certain minimum standards in the provision of financial services such as equal access to a basis banking service for all. There should also not be cost penalties for low-income consumers. But beyond such minimum standards in, for example the areas of basic banking services, mortgage loans and small business finance, market forces should be allowed to direct activity. (11) Whereas a robust commitment to achieving social goals through banking and its regulation is desired, any legislative instrument would, it is submitted, have to be of a preliminary nature, be very flexible and ultimately reflexive to market adaptation to principles of social responsibility. (12) Whilst it may be possible to annex any legal measures on social responsibility to the Social Chapter where much of the social dimension of EU law is found, a Recommendation on the social responsibility of credit institutions comprising a European Code of Practice and a set of goals for Governments to aim towards may initially be more appropriate. Together with the Recommendation a review committee could be established to follow the implementation by Governments and private credit institutions of such proposals. (13) If credit institutions are to have minimum standards of social responsibility then they should be motivated to show commitment to equal access to financial services. One possibility could be a self regulated Code of Practice defining a basic banking service and covering responsibility for access, for quality and cost of financial services. A step in that direction was made by the European Savings Bank Association when they issued their statement of principles in 1996. There should also be structures for review of the implementation of such statements to see how progress is being made. Review structures should involve representatives of consumer interests. (14) Transparency of social responsibility in mainstream banking services is seen as desirable for any regulation and action. Transparency allows the proper functioning of market mechanisms. It is imperative that disclosure information as to the activities of credit institutions vis-a-vis their social responsibilities should be in the public domain. Transparency in three areas seem to be necessary: distribution, social effects and best practise of financial services. (15) It was shown in the country reports that there is potential to work efficiently against problems such as unemployment or social exclusion with appropriate financial services products. Some ideas were given but further development is only able in co-operation with experts in credit institutions. Research for new products with socially beneficial effects could be fostered by the European Commission. Appropriate tools would be best practice studies; an internet database collecting such case studies, adding relevant information from the media, the banking sector and academic research; and invitations to tender for new products and product developments. (16) Lessons should be drawn from the practical experience which can be found in the social economy banking institutions. Small financial institutions of that group in each country demonstrate that there are opportunities for social economy banking. The longer and more established of such initiatives were moving towards or had reached both a sustainable level but also prudential levels which proved their viability. However, more significant impact can be achieved by them only through growth and increased professionalism. The requirements of both mainstream banks and social economy banks might be met by strategic arrangements being built up at an early stage so as to develop effective ways of understanding future challenges. To develop this process meetings might be supported to develop benchmarks for development. In addition, the EU Banking Directives need to remain sufficiently flexible to permit new social financial institutions to develop within appropriate prudential criteria. Further examination of this area is overdue. (17) It is desirable to develop incentives towards best practice, to publicise the most successful initiatives and to allow institutions themselves to evaluate what they undertake in this regard as much as possible. Some external and independent social audit may also be required to consolidate a robust framework. Subsidies are certainly to be considered in all areas where contamination of the actual credit institution business decision making process is avoided. In the example of commercial micro loans it became obvious that even best practise is not sustainable and therefore subsidy essential. However, the technique of subsidy should foster market creativity and the striving for efficiency on the one hand while concentrating on that part of the business where social responsibility leads to above average costs - in the case of the previous example, the high support involved. (18) At a consumer level there is also room for considering what national tax incentives might encourage bank customers to save and invest for social purposes and thereby provide specific funds for such purposes. Making transparent what money is used for by particular institutions can only encourage consumers to make informed decisions. Hamburg, 29 September 1997 (Revised 15 October 1997) |
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| Sprache | en/englisch | ||
| Datenerfassung | IFF : Institut Für Finanzdienstleistungen | ||
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