Fiare Banca Ética, a cooperative entity dedicated to ethical finance, wants to strengthen its presence in Catalonia and has sought better visibility with a new office in Barcelona. Opened in mid-2020, in the midst of the pandemic, the facility was officially inaugurated this December as an open space and meeting point for all the entity's members.
Sònia Molina, coordinator of the Barcelona delegation, explains that this new office "invites transparency, which is something we attach great importance to. We want a meeting space with clients, our partner entities, and individual members. In this office, the aim has been to create a space where these members can meet; whether the office is open or not. They always have access to the space, depending on their needs."
For this reason, Fiare Banca Ética's facilities located on Còrsega street have been adapted under environmental and health criteria, both for the people who manufacture the materials and for those who will use them, promoting energy efficiency and sustainability. The new office, completely renovated by the sAtt studio, specialized in ecological architecture, is a 297 square meter premises on a single floor with direct access from the street.
The entity has more than 3,000 members and manages savings worth 245 million euros in Spain, where it has granted more than 80 million euros in loansThe cooperative was born as a foundation in 2003 in Bilbao, promoted by various groups interested in ethical finance, and opened its first office in Barcelona in 2007. Subsequently, in 2014, it began operating as a financial entity with a banking license from the Bank of Spain and under the umbrella of the Italian Banca Popolare Etica.
Currently, in Spain as a whole, the entity has more than 3,000 members and manages savings worth 245 million euros. In the last year, it has granted more than 80 million euros in loans. "The numbers reflect solidity and independence and allow us to increase our transformative impact because we evaluate our actions not only from an economic point of view, but also with social and environmental criteria," the entity recalls.
They insist that another way of doing banking is not a utopia, because it already exists, and that the money they manage has a positive impact on society, the environment and care for people, among other aspects.
The sector in Spain
In the ethical banking sector in Spain, in its strictest terminology, four entities operate: Coop57, Triodos Bank, Fiare Banca Ética and Oikocredit. According to the Observatory of Ethical Finance, these entities granted loans for more than 1,720 million euros in 2020, an increase of 16.02% compared to the previous year. Likewise, the delinquency rate of ethical finance entities was 1.52% last year, which is the lowest delinquency since data has been collected.
At the end of 2020, almost 190,000 individuals and legal entities were clients of ethical finance banking and parabanking entities. This represents a slight decrease in the number of users of 2.46% compared to the previous year.
Also with data from last year, the share capital raised by ethical finance entities is slightly below 190 million euros, which is fundamental to be able to continue financing transformative projects in a more solid way.