June 23, 2009

While many of Europe's largest banks were accumulating "toxic" assets in recent years, a gentler, quieter banking movement was emerging here that espoused a wholly different set of investment values.Institutions such as Sweden's Ekobanken aim to not only keep clients' deposits safe, but also to invest in the "social economy," by funding projects like alternative energy, affordable housing, and organic farming.

Although some of the global financial giants have stumbled, these so-called social banks are reporting surprising successes."It's back-to-basics banking," says Kristoffer Lüthi, vice managing director of Ekobanken. "Lending out money to people and institutions you believe can pay it back, and not believing in a too-rapid financial development, because that's not sustainable in the long run."