If you work in finance, you’ll know that tick is what makes the world tock. Without the ability to borrow money, home ownership would remain an impossible dream and businesses would never get off the ground.
The credit card would be useful for scraping ice from windscreens but little else, and pensions, rainy day funds and savings for big events such as holidays and weddings, would languish in piggy banks.
Finance is a vital part of our society so s1jobs is excited to hear about a new bank that promises to be a force for good, both socially and to the economy.
The Scottish Investment Bank, unveiled by the Scottish Government, has set out its stall in very clear terms. It promises to be ethical and inclusive – and behind it is the big idea of helping Scotland to become a hi-tech, low-carbon economy.
This is finance with a mission – a sort of Marvel Comic superhero form of money lending – and it has already attracted the support of Friends of the Earth Scotland, who have praised its potential to do good.
The Government has pledged to make almost £500 million available for new investment through the bank over the next three years and has promised the range of products will include everything from microloans for small enterprises right up to loans of as much as £10 million for businesses scaling up their operations and for targeted debt support.
The brains behind the bank is Mariana Mazzucato, a professor at University College London and an economic advisor to the Scottish Government.
She says banks with a mission are the ones that make a difference when it comes to promoting innovative technologies and solving global issues.
Speaking at the bank’s launch, Mariana said: “Innovation requires patient strategic finance, and there is simply not much of that in the UK. Yet, around the world, state investment banks are taking centre stage in providing such finance for key social and environmental challenges of the 21st Century.
“Importantly, the bank will not just seek to simply correct market failures. It will help steer the path of innovation towards overcoming key challenges by creating and shaping new markets.”
It’s a bold step but an exciting one and who wouldn’t want to work for a bank that helps small businesses get off the ground, while at the same time solving global problems?
If you’d like to make your own mark and effect real change in Financial Services, take a look at the latest vacancies on s1jobs.