As ethical banks have developed from niche players to a serious competition for traditional
banks supposedly ethical banks and even traditional banks use the term ethical bank in order
to sell bank services under the cloak of sustainable and ethically correct business
conduct.Therefore the aim of this research is to make truly ethical banks distinguishable from
traditional banks by investigating analyzing and determining principles ethical banks have to
fulfill or refrain from in order to call themselves truly ethical. Based on academic research
results a web-based survey identifies the bank customer's attitude towards sustainability
ethics and their banking and the ethical attitude towards the nine areas of business banks
may be confronted with. The survey results build the basis for a list of positive and negative
ethical guiding principles which should serve as a general standard for ethical
banks.Nevertheless the ethical guiding principles need to be continuously reviewed and
validated as a consequence of the ever-changing environmental social and legal environment. In
the case of its direct implementation a control mechanism within or outside the bank must
monitor and ensure compliance with these principles.
