Feel-Good Wealth

Feel good about banking with one of the World’s Most Ethical Companies.

Be Ethical

Feel good about banking with one of the World’s Most Ethical Companies

Strong ethics and values are what define the emergency services sector. 

In the same way, our values are what drives our commitment to do what’s good and right for our members, the planet and people on it.

For the fifth year in a row, we’ve been named one of the World's Most Ethical Companies® by the Ethisphere Institute. In 2022, we were one of only five banks globally to achieve this.

It feels good to be ethical. It underpins who we are, what we do and why we do it - and has done for over 50 years.

What we do

  1. We pioneered $1 billion of responsible investment as the first bank in Australia to certify wholesale funds, the first based on fossil fuel exclusion. 
  2. We are the only Australian bank with retail deposits, mortgages, and wholesale funding all certified as responsible .
  3. We report on our environment, social and governance (ESG) performance annually across 85 targets and KPIs.
  4. 55 external performance results highlight our consistency and excellence practice social responsibility.
  5. We have strict social responsibility exclusion criteria in our lending. These exclusions mean we won’t provide funding where ‘the primary purpose of the entity or business is alcohol, armaments, correctional facilities, cryptocurrency, deforestation or gross environmental degradation, gambling, military activities, political activities, pornography, slavery, tobacco or uranium’.
  6. No political donations: we do not donate, give gifts or employee or management time to support political candidates or political organisations.
  7. As a member of the Global Alliance on Banking on Values (GABV), we adhere to its Principles of Values-based banking, which establishes a triple bottom line approach at the heart of the business model.
  8. We support the UN Sustainable Finance Roadmap for Australia, designed to reset the $10 trillion sector to a sustainable future.
  9. The Bank strives for excellence and international leadership in its business practices, and its Mission states that ‘The Bank will operate in an ethically, socially and environmentally responsible manner’.

  • Finder Green Bank of the Year

    Green Bank of the Year

    We are delighted to have been awarded Green Bank of the Year in Finder’s Green Awards for 2022.

    The Finder Green Awards help Australians to find the companies leading the way on sustainability across numerous categories. With awards in the energy, insurance, banking, travel, shopping, superannuation and telecommunications industries, this is one of the broadest sustainability awards programs in Australia.

    All relevant companies are encouraged to enter the awards and winners are selected each year based on broad and sector-specific environmental metrics. These include greenhouse gas emissions, renewable energy usage and waste avoiding landfill.

    We were also a finalist for this award in 2021 and 2020.

    Our credentials for the award include:

    • We were the first bank to sign up to the investor-led Climate League 2030 position to cut Australia’s emissions by 45% by 2030 in line with the Paris Agreement. Our commitment is to reach an additional $20 billion in Certified Responsible Investment products by 2030.
    • We are the only bank in Australia to have all wholesale and retail mortgages and deposits certified by Responsible Investment Association of Australasia (RIAA) on the basis of zero fossil-fuel industry investment – as of December 2022 our RIAA product portfolio was $9.7billion. 
    • We are the only bank named as a Responsible Investment Leader by RIAA.
    • We have been net zero for our direct greenhouse gas emissions since 2012 (Scope 1 and 2). 
    • We cut our emissions as we grow. In the past five years, whilst total assets increased 76%, we reduced our Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 47% and our emissions intensity by 70%.
    • As part of our reduction strategy, we have invested $850,000 in our offices to install solar panels and other green initiatives.

    You can find out more about the Finder Green Awards here:

    Finder Green Awards

    Australia's leaders in sustainability revealed

  • Certified B Corporation

    Certified B Corporation

    Certification to become a B Corp is a rigorous, verified performance assessment across 5 areas: Governance, Workers, Customers, Community, Environment, with a minimum score of 80 points, 300+ scored questions, multiple verification rounds, a series of interviews and data provision. The process took us over 12 months to complete.

    The combination of third-party verification, public transparency, and legal accountability makes certification unique, credible, and significant; it builds trust as it measures what matters most.

    Certification is administered by the non-profit global organisation B Lab. Unlike other certifications for businesses, B Lab is unique in its ability to measure a company’s entire social and environmental impact across all operations.

    Why it matters

    Third party assessments are proof that we can be trusted, that we really are a force for good in banking. Our purpose is to provide ‘Banking for good, for those who do good’, so being a B Corp is proof of our credentials.

    A small child climbs a tree in a green forest. The 'Certified B Corporation' is overlaid on the right.

    Based on the B Impact assessment, Teachers Mutual Bank Limited earned an overall score of 102.4. The median score for ordinary businesses who complete the assessment is currently 50.9.

    Read our B Corp assessment

  • World's Most Ethical Companies

    World’s Most Ethical Companies

    We have been named one of the World’s Most Ethical Companies every year from 2014-2022. We’re one of five banks on the list of 136 companies in 2022. 

    The World’s Most Ethical Companies (WME) evaluation is run by the US Ethisphere Institute. The recognition honours superior achievements in transparency, integrity, ethics and compliance, and underscores our commitment to leading with integrity and prioritising ethical business practices.

    Learn more

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