Triodos Bank N.V. (Triodos Bank) is an ethical bank headquartered in the Netherlands with several branches in Belgium, Germany, the United Kingdom, and Spain. It was founded in 1980. The bank prioritizes investments in environmentally friendly initiatives.

History

Former headquarters of Triodos Bank in Zeist, the Netherlands

The name Triodos is derived from the Greek words "tau - (three, three) and delta (hodos, roads), meaning" the intersection of three roads ". For the bank, they are: people, planet, and profit. The bank was originally founded as an anthroposophical initiative with a mission to improve the quality of life in a broad sense.

In 1980, Triodos launched the first "Green Fund" on the Amsterdam Stock Exchange, a fund for environmental projects. In 1994, Triodos took over the British ethical bank Mercury Provident.

Banking operations and customer support are primarily provided digitally, but adapted to local business norms. In Spain, for example, several brick-and-mortar offices are opened in major towns.

As of December 31, 2015, the Triodos Banking Group had a European business volume of approximately 12.30 billion euros, disbursed over 44,000 (2015) loans, and managed over 700,000 customer accounts.

Triodos Bank has been awarded the 2009 Sustainable Bank of the Year award by the Financial Times and the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a subsidiary of the World Bank.

Philosophy

Triodos Bank refers to its work as the principle of social triple anthropology. The bank transfers its customers' deposits exclusively into the real economy, thereby financing companies, organizations and projects that it believes contribute to ecological, social or cultural change. In line with this philosophy, Triodos Bank in Germany purchases electricity from green energy provider Naturstrom AG.

Transparency

Triodos "publishes detailed information on each organization that lends and invests". The bank displays online its annual report on its loans and entrusted funds, which highlights key facts and figures from Triodos Bank.

Policies

Depositors can open traditional savings accounts as well as ethics funds and venture capital investments. Triodos also offers traditional personal current account and commercial banking services. Triodos has an active international department that supports microfinance schemes in developing countries. Triodos is the only commercial bank in the UK to provide an annual list of all the bank's loans.

The bank maintains the following policy with respect to its financial activities and investments:

Lending criteria

Triodos is unusual in that it only provides loans to businesses and charities deemed to be socially or ecologically beneficial. This "positive screening" extends its policy beyond those of ethical banks, which only avoid investing in companies deemed to be causing harm ("negative screening"). The bank uses funds deposited by nearly 100,000 depositors and lends them to hundreds of organizations, such as the Fair Trade Initiative, Organic Farms, Cultural and Arts Initiative, Renewable Energy Projects and Social Enterprises.

Shareholders

Triodos is owned by private investors and minority institutional investors through depositary receipts. At the end of 2021, the bank had 43,521 depositary receipts holders.

Shares in Triodos Bank are owned by Stichting Administratiekantoor Aandelen Triodos Bank (SAAT), which issues depositary receipts to individuals and institutions, giving them the right to pay dividends, but with limited voting rights. These depositary receipts are not traded on any stock exchange. Holders may not own more than 10% of the shares, and each holder is limited to 1,000 votes at the depositary receipts holders' general meeting. This structure was chosen to prevent hostile takeovers.

Triodos has managed certificate trading since its inception, with prices determined by the bank's NAV and updated regularly. Mainly due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been an imbalance between buyers and sellers of certificates, with more sellers than buyers. As a result, the bank suspended trading on March 18, 2020. Trading resumed on October 13, 2020, with sales capped at €5,000, which was later reduced to just €1,000. Trading was suspended again on January 5, 2021. This caused a reaction from certificate holders. They joined forces in November 2021 on the "Triodom" platform, on which in March 2022 the Triodos Bank Depositary Receipt Holder Foundation was established to represent the relevant clients with a deposit capacity totalling €120 million. On October 10, 2022, the foundation submitted a petition to the Corporate Chamber of the Amsterdam Court of Appeal for an investigation, which the bank regretted.

On December 21, 2021, Triodos decided to start trading certificates on the Multilateral Trading Facility (MTF), which is only available to registered participants and therefore protects the autonomy and mission of the bank. The price of the certificates will then be determined by supply and demand. To meet its tax filing obligations, the bank has given an administrative discount of 30% on the value of the certificates from December 31, 2021. On January 5, 2021, the certificates last traded at €84, but for tax purposes, they were valued at just €60. As trading is not expected to resume until the second quarter of 2023, a restricted certificate repurchase scheme is planned for 2021 for certificate holders in urgent need of selling their shares. However, in August 2022, the bank announced that it would withdraw the scheme and instead pay a special dividend of €1.01 per depositary receipt (before withholding tax).

On October 11, 2022, the bank's shareholder, SAAT, approved the transition to the MTF. Captain BV was chosen as the administrator of the MTF.

Trading reopened on July 5, 2023, but with little volume, as of mid-July 2024 the price of the Captin trading platform is 31 euros. Certificate holders, divided into Stichting Certificaathouders Triodos Bank and other groups in Spain and Germany, voted at the SAAT meeting on measures to increase returns for investors. A listing on Euronext is planned.