Safer savings and clearer consciences?

Janice Warman looks at two ‘ethical’ banks that are drawing customers away from the shamed high-street giants

The credit crunch left most of our major banks in disarray, not to say disgrace. But it has been remarkably good for some of their smaller competitors. ‘Ethical banks’ might once have been dismissed by the high-street giants as a benignly unthreatening fringe, just as ethical share investment was considered by mainstream investors to be little more than an eccentric luxury for trustafarians.