Is anyone aware of the major banks and building societies being particularly ethical or otherwise i.e. not investing in armaments, repressive regimes etc.
I would be keen to know if any have a reputation for being very unethical too.
I'm guessing that this will be very hard to answer - if you dig deep enough you'll probably find that a lot of institutions operate in ways that could be described as unethical.
Even if an institution is reputedly or anecdotally ethical/unethical will you believe it?
The issue of "ethical" investments has come up several times before if you search/browse for the relevant threads. One issue here is that what's "ethical" to one person might not be to another so it's difficult to come up with objective info on the matter. For example one person might see biofuels as "ethical" while another might see them as detrimental to the environment.
As an investment adviser, I have met about 10 people in the last 10 years looking for an ethical investment.
When I put whatever "ethical" investment fund(s) was available in Ireland at the time, not one of the 10 were happy to proceed because of one or other holding in the portfolio.
So in terms of investing money, the only way I can see forward for those with ethical concerns is to open a private shares portfolio with a stockbroker.
There is a UK based magazine called "The Ethical Consumer" and a website of the same name. While it probably won't help you with specific Irish financial institutions, it may give you some info on how to check a company/bank.