'Liberté, égalité, fraternité'
The Triodos Bank is 35 years old. The purpose of this still quite young bank, is to use the clients’ money to increase their quality of life. "We do that primarily by financing small and medium-sized entrepreneurs who have good ideas for a better world", says Albert van Zadelhoff, Director Private Banking. "Locally we mainly do that through our credit company and as shareholders and bond holders through our investment company. The founders of Triodos recognised that they could best accomplish their plans by founding a bank, because that would allow them to scale up. Back then that was seen as a forward-looking vision. A bank has a lot more elbow room than, for example, a foundation or co-operative and Triodos clients remain connected to their money because we show them the impact of that money."
Who strives for a better world must act accordingly, says Van Zadelhoff. "We are prudent bankers. We apply the principle of 'liberté, égalité, fraternité'. So we do not use bonuses, because we all contribute proportionally to the success of the bank. At Triodos you are responsible for your own development. And you remain alert to that of your neighbour." Van Zadelhoff has worked for twelve years at Triodos, where Private Banking serves both wealthy individuals and associations, foundations, and churches. "We invest very transparently and are committed: with all companies we have a hearty preliminary conversation about sustainability. This also applies to suppliers. So we check for example whether a supplier is careful in the use of materials and how they deal with their staff."
Regulation requires, among other things, that we ensure that our clients’ financial goals are feasible. We wanted to achieve that without it becoming predominant in our discussions and our communication.
Related Insights
-
26 July 2021Missed our Q2 2021 Scenario Webinar? Access it hereDownload materials if you missed our Q2 webinar - The return of inflation and the frequency domain toolkit for economic modeling by Hens Steehouwer and Patrick Tuijp.
-
26 July 2021Quarterly Outlook: June 2021The outlook is based on the Ortec Finance Economic Scenario Generator (ESG) and offers our perspective on recent developments in the economy and capital markets.
-
22 July 2021OPAL featured in Arena International’s Financial HandbookWe are proud to be included in Arena International’s Financial Services Disruptive Technology handbook with the OPAL solution. This in-depth look at new technology, trends and innovation within the Financial Services industry is the go-to reference guide for professionals in retail banking, insurance, private banking and wealth management.
-
15 July 2021PRESS RELEASE: Matrix IDM builds standard interface to Ortec Finance’s PEARL to deliver streamlined investment data managementMatrix IDM acts as data hub ingesting and cleansing all data before it is consumed by PEARL. PEARL’s standard interface already in use in some of the world’s largest fund management firms.
-
01 July 2021Quarterly Scenario Webinar – The return of inflation and the frequency domain toolkit for economic modelingJoin us on July 22 for the latest edition of the Economic Scenario Outlook webinar. Our in-house experts Patrick Tuijp and Hens Steehouwer will discuss the return of inflation and take you through the frequency domain toolkit for economic modeling.
-
21 June 2021Stargazing? Or have the NGFS and the Bank of England missed an opportunity to drive the race to net zero?‘We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars’, wrote the Irish playwright Oscar Wilde. The oft-quoted phrase came to mind when reading the influential reports by the Network for Greening the Financial System (NGFS) – a group of 91 central banks and supervisors that came with its second iteration of climate scenarios – and the Bank of England’s (BoE) second iteration of its Climate Biennial Exploratory Scenarios (CBES), both published this month.
-
15 June 2021Richard Owen is speaking at Aite Group’s Digital Innovation in Wealth Management Executive ForumWe are proud to announce that we are a platinum sponsor of Aite Group’s Digital Innovation in Wealth Management Executive Forum. Join this event and learn from industry experts how leading financial institutions have navigated the crisis and how innovation and evolving digital platforms have helped them serve their clients better during the crisis.
-
15 June 2021Investment performance method by Ortec Finance republished in Journal of Performance MeasurementOrtec Finance is honored that the Journal of Performance Measurement (JPM) republished a Landmark article that was co-authored by Elske van de Burgt
-
14 June 2021Green benchmarks don’t mitigate all climate risk, but they do shift capitalWillemijn Verdegaal will be speaking at RI Europe 2021 by Responsible Investor! This panel, on June 16, will be a deep-dive on: What financial/environmental changes are Paris-aligned and Climate Transition benchmarks driving?