Banking Redefined
Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.
– Margaret Mead, Anthropologist
Osper joined forces with Innovate Finance and MyBnk to host a “Build a Bank” workshop for young people aged 11 to 18. Young people from all walks of life came together to discuss their ideas around banking.
In today’s session, our group of young people learned that when you have large banking corporations with an excessive focus on profit, ethical behaviour can sometimes take a back seat. So when it came to building their very own banks it was refreshing to see that ethics most certainly wasn’t ushered to the back row. In fact every single bank created that day had ethics at the forefront.
Whether it’s funding social projects or helping the environment, investments would have a clear agenda, to benefit the greater good. This wasn’t and isn’t a display of youth naivety. It was about challenging traditional banking values (if you can call them values) and thinking of new ways to generate revenue. This was a display of young people taking a more charitable view. Isn’t the act of changing the way you view something one of the biggest drivers of social change?
When building their banks, groups were asked to think of a name, slogan and key features, here are some of the highlights:
CSB — Clear Sky Banking — would have ATM eye scanners
Sterling Bank — Opportunities are endless, would allow young people to take out loans. If young people are responsible enough to hold down a job there should be no reason they can’t get a loan.
US Bank — bringing the nation together for a secure future — would have self-erasing text alerts
Global Bank — Safe Secure Service — would have an interest-free policy on all first loans.
The outcome of this session was pretty clear, banking for young people needs to be:
Simple, transparent and frankly a lot more rewarding
For more youth lead banking insights check out the video below.
