Local Futures

  • Home
  • Media room
  • Blog
  • Store
  • Contact

The Economics of Happiness

Donate
Menu
  • About us
    • Who we are
    • Founder, Helena Norberg-Hodge
    • Get involved and support us
    • Our history
    • Close
  • Projects
    • Connect globally and locally
      • World Localization Day
      • Voices from the Field
      • Localization Action Guide
      • International Alliance for Localization
        • Join the IAL
        • IAL members
          • IAL member organizations
          • IAL Listserv
      • Ladakh Project
      • Planet Local
        • Culture
        • Eco Communities
        • Ecology
        • Health
        • Local Business & Finance
        • Local Energy
        • Local Food, Farming & Fisheries
        • Local Policy & Community Rights
        • Place-based Education
        • Sharing & Repairing
    • Gain a big picture perspective
      • Blog
      • Local Futures Podcast
        • Jeremy Lent: Shifting Paradigms
        • COP, carbon and high-tech: who is setting the agenda?
        • Beyond Conspiracy: Framing Meaningful Activism
        • Unpacking Global Empire from an Indigenous Perspective
        • More than Just the Vegetables
        • Food Sovereignty in the Global Economy
        • Transition, Tradition, and Trade
        • Not-for-Profit Businesses
        • Love, Values, and Wellbeing Economies
        • Growing a Farmers Market from the Ground Up
        • Beautiful Places: A Conversation with Wendell Berry
        • Creating the Framework for a New Economy
        • From GDP to GNH
        • Rebuilding Healthy Communities: The Growing Ecovillage Movement
        • Seeds of Resilience, Seeds of Sovereignty
        • Why Local Ownership Matters
        • Local Alternatives to Globalized Development: A View from India
        • How to Feed the World? A Political Agroecological Approach
        • Helena Norberg-Hodge on how corporate ‘free trade’ deals threaten local communities and economies worldwide
      • Webinars
        • Sacred Activism in a Post-Trump World Webinar
        • Talking Climate Webinar
        • People Power: Democracy and the Economy Webinar
        • Beyond Trump: The Path to Real Change Webinar
        • Bringing the Food Economy Home Webinar
        • A World Without ‘Free’ Trade: What it would look like and how to get there
        • Beyond ‘Free Trade’ – Alternatives to Corporate Rule
        • Education: Promises, Myths & Realities Webinar
        • Debt and Speculation in the Global Economy Webinar
        • A New Activism Webinar
        • Climate Change or System Change Webinar
        • Going Local Webinar
      • Powerful talks
      • The Economics of Happiness film
      • Films and short videos
      • Books and reports
    • Close
  • Events
    • Upcoming events
    • World Localization Day
    • Economics of Happiness conferences
    • Other past events
    • Close
  • Action resources
    • Learn about our work
      • Globalization – drivers and impacts
      • Localization – a solution-multiplier
      • Big Picture Activism – rethinking basic assumptions
    • Action tools
      • Localization Action Guide
      • Covid-19 response: let’s localize like never before
      • Maps of alternatives
      • Organizations for change
      • Independent media sources
      • Films for change
      • Recommended readings
    • Close
  • Books, reports & videos
    • Books and reports
      • Local is Our Future by Helena Norberg-Hodge
        • Endorsements for Local is Our Future
        • Translations of Local is Our Future
      • Ancient Futures by Helena Norberg-Hodge
      • Free reading materials
      • Newsletters & annual reports
      • Translated resources
    • Films and short videos
      • PLANET LOCAL : A Quiet Revolution film
      • LOCAL: A Story of Hope short video
      • Local Food Can Save The World short video
      • Going Local: the solution-multiplier animation
      • Insane Trade short video and factsheet
        • Insane Trade! & factsheet translated
      • The Economics of Happiness film
      • Ancient Futures film
      • Planet Local short film series
        • 1 – Introduction: The new local food movement
        • 2 – Diverse farming systems
        • 3 – Local food webs: Exploring systems of distribution
        • 4 – Local food processors: AKA making delicious food
        • 5 – Challenges & solutions
        • 6 – Ecovillages & networks for new farmers
        • 7 – and finally… Here’s a little more inspiration
    • Close
You are here: Home / Our Projects / Global to Local / Planet Local / Local Business & Finance / Planet Local Initiatives

Cooperative for Ethical Financing (ZEF)

Croatia

Zagreb, Croatia

Photo by Nicolas Vollmer (CC BY 2.0)

In 2008, Goran Jeras was working in The Netherlands, helping big banks and financial institutions improve their risk-assessment methodologies in the midst of the financial crash. It was then that Jeras realized how unsustainable the mainstream financial sector is today – not only financially, but socially and ecologically as well. At the same time, he saw clearly the ethical problems inherent in a system driven entirely by profit – in which the needs of human beings and the planet count for nothing.

So he returned to his home country of Croatia and, together with some friends in the Croatian banking world, founded the Cooperative for Ethical Financing (Zadruga za Etično Financiranje, ZEF) an “ethical development bank” entirely owned and democratically governed by its own members.

In an interview published by The Next System Project, Jeras explains that the founders began with some radical ideas: “The purpose of the bank,” he said, “is to efficiently manage the resources of the local community. Banks themselves, if you look at the value chain, do not add any value. The role of a bank is to be a catalyst, utilizing the resources and the funds of the community, towards those that are creating a new value for their community.” To that end, it functions as a non-profit, for the reason that any money earned would be at the expense of the community – those who are actively creating new added value.

Similarly, loans to individuals are only given to satisfy basic human needs – like education, health and housing, or to resolve social problems caused by past loans – not to buy unnecessary material goods. ZEF also does strict due diligence before investing in projects and businesses: loans not only need to be financially viable, but beneficial to society and the environment. Jeras compares their system to crowdfunding, because the loans are given without interest, and investors (co-op members) even have some say about which projects their money goes to. The projects essentially become joint ventures between the borrower and the members, and no one profits except new environmentally and socially conscious businesses and ideas.

Jeras and his partners also see cooperative ownership as one of the necessary characteristics of an ethical bank – for the reason that there should be no shareholders in the bank who don’t also have an interest in the services the bank is providing. Every member of the cooperative has an equal voice when it comes to voting on big decisions, regardless of the value of their deposit. ZEF also places great value on transparency: there are no hidden fees or expenses, and information about all important decisions is made publicly available. Because of this democratic structure in which personal relationships matter, Jeras believes membership will need to be capped between 60,000 and 100,000. The idea is that massive, faceless financial institutions simply cannot function as ethically as a smaller community like ZEF.

Aside from all of these innovations, it functions as a normal bank, and should be the only bank its members need to use (that is, as long as they don’t plan on taking out credit to buy lots of things they can’t afford and don’t need).

To learn more, read this interview by Adam Simpson and Sarah McKinley published by the Next System Project: http://www.thenextsystem.org/cooperative-banking-in-croatia/ (Jeras’ quotes come from here).

Related


Cooperative for Ethical Financing (ZEF)

Category: Local Business & Finance

Related

Local Futures Logo
About us
Contact
Get involved
Privacy Policy

Projects
The Economics of Happiness film
Events
Action resources
Books, reports and videos
Blog
Store

Sign up for our email update

Donate

Local Futures © Copyright 2022 | site by digiflip
 

Loading Comments...