A System That Serves: Rebuilding Finance for the Future (Triodos Bank)

Summary

• Triodos Bank was founded 45 years ago based on the conviction that money can be consciously used to serve life.p.4
• The document proposes a public payment system for the eurozone and a central bank digital currency (CBDC) to provide citizens with safe, digital public money.p.13
• French credit policy maintained by the French Banking Control Commission between 1945 and 1984 serves as historical inspiration for credit guidance regimes.p.21
• According to the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), the over-the-counter foreign exchange market reached $9.6 trillion per day.p.29
• Three global asset management firms—BlackRock, Vanguard, and State Street—collectively hold major stakes in most listed companies.p.18

Key insights

1. Financial system assets and liabilities have expanded far faster than the real economy, driven largely by asset price inflation rather than productive capacity.p.7
2. The shift from physical cash to digital commercial bank deposits privatises the monetary base and increases reliance on public guarantees.p.11
3. Cryptocurrencies entail high energy costs and price volatility, functioning primarily as speculative assets rather than stable stores of value.p.12
4. Establishing a centralised public authority for KYC and CDD checks across Europe could lower compliance costs and reduce unjust exclusion.p.13
5. Shortening credit intermediation chains reconnects banking to real-economy projects and lowers financial system fragility.p.20
6. Capping cumulative returns on shareholder equity can align financial participation with actual value creation.p.22
7. Traditional, backward-looking financial risk models are structurally inadequate for estimating novel, non-linear ecological and climate risks.p.24