Rocky Mountain Green Bank

ROCKY MOUNTAIN GREEN BANK CASE STUDY
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Ethical Issues
From the case study, there are three ethical dilemmas jay faces in the bank. First, the company needs strong clients to secure its financial position. However, the company was founded on ethical banking values, and though it seemed to have focused on environmental impact, its values are founded on ethical principles. The case study shows jay, an environmentally conscious individual with vast experience in the banking industry, discussing potential clients with his board. The first ethical dilemma is whether to advance a loan to a company involved in fracking. Fracking is aimed at extracting fossil fuel which is a known environmental polluter whether the company uses ‘less toxic’ chemicals and compounds or not. The second ethical dilemma is whether to decline or accept a loan application from a gun manufacturing company. The third ethical dilemma is for jay as he attempts to succeed in the company while also remaining true to the ethical values and goals he envisioned before starting the bank. Jay gets itself at a crossroads, which would define how the business would be conducted in the future.
Recommendations
- RGMB should decline the loan offers it has received from the fracking company. The core mission of the green company is to have a positive environmental change. This is evidenced in the way it designed its building and carefully selected the core mission ingrained in the bank's name. It is on a mission to provide financial products to companies that share its values, and accommodating the fracking company is diverging from the bank's core mission.
- RGMB should deny the gun manufacturer the $3 million loan. While gun manufacturing is not necessarily a ‘green affair,’ it has a social stain because of the use of its products. The use of its products is to take lives, and supporting that goal will leave a social stain. It is very likely that the individuals who support environmental conservation are also anti-guns, and therefore, they will feel alienated.
- RGMB should come up with guidelines about who should be their business partners and who shouldn’t. If the bank had set these guidelines earlier, it would have had a blueprint to determine this case.
Reasons for the Above Recommendations
First, RGMB does not need to advance loan products to companies or individuals who do not share their values. At the moment, deposits are growing at a healthy rate. Since the bank is not in financial distress, it would be greedy to violate its mission and advance loans to companies involved business operations that contravene the bank’s mission. Therefore, since the bank is not a going concern, it can survive in the foreseeable future as it seeks to work with companies that share its values. The benefits of taking up the two clients outweigh the long-term benefits of staying clear of controversial business relationships.
If the bank opens the door for one company, it will likely open the door for other companies that do not s...