Business Models for Responsible Banking – A Trend Towards More Humanistic Banking?

Given the mounting criticism of the banking sector as corrosive to society, this article is presenting an overview of business models in the banking sector that can reconnect financial services with common good creation. We sketch out two basic paradigms informing banking practice: the economistic paradigm focusing on profit maximization and the humanistic one, serving the common good. We then highlight paradigmatic cases to explore how each of these business models fared during the natural experiment of the financial crisis. We conclude by providing lessons learned for better banking