SEBI index: Measuring the commitment to the principles of social banking

Resumen

As a result of the financial crisis, ethical banking has become a visible phenomenon that has aroused the interest of those clients that are disappointed with conventional banking, as well as that of the scientific community. However, research on ethical banking has just started, with several subjects pending consensus, such as the proper definition or identification of banks considered to be ethical. In view of the above, the objective of this study is, first and foremost, to define the common characteristics of all banks affiliated to the movement; empirically, we shall quantify the level of commitment with the same and, thus, as a result of this quantification, obtain a ranking that classifies the selected banks according to the scores obtained. Regarding the methodology used, the quantification of the level of commitment with ethical banking is done through a new index called SEBI (Social and Ethical Banking Index), designed from the characteristics defined in the study and applied to the banks identified as ethical due to being a part of the main network of this type of banking: The Global Alliance for Banking on Values (GABV).