In June 2014 the European Central Bank dropped its base interest rate below 0% for the first time. It charges “negative interest” on overnight deposits of commercial banks and is not the first or only bank to do this. With this policy central banks hope to stimulate commercial banks to make loans into the real […]

read more

Is a world dominated by profit and competition a good place to be? This summer program focuses on ways to restructure economic systems to embody sustainable use of resources and a more collaborate society overall. At AEMS you learn about: The variety of alternative economic and monetary systems that are already in practice worldwide. Ecologic […]

read more

Do flaws in our monetary system consistently cause financial crises?
So far, critical questions concerning our monetary system and the financial crisis have been underexposed.
The new film ‘A Flaw in the Monetary System?’ depicts in 7 ½ minutes consequences of interest and compound interest in the financial world in descriptive graphics. It illustrates the systematic redistribution of money from the majority to the wealthy.

read more

Model of a sustainable money system beyond the growth imperative? The Swedish JAK Bank has been offering interest-free savings, loans and banking services since 1965, with the aim of enabling an interest-free economy. More than 38,000 members of the cooperative bank save with interest-free savings accounts and can thus borrow money from the general fund […]

read more

The New Economics Foundation (NEF) is a British ‘think tank’, which promotes economic and ecological justice. NEF has been the UK’s leading research organisation for money, credit and complementary currencies since 1986. www.neweconomics.org

read more

The idea of constructing a monetary system without (positive) interest rates can be traced to the German-Argentine businessman Silvio Gesell and the French economist Maurice Allais. Gesell observed the booms and busts of the economy in which he was doing business and developed the idea that fluctuating currency circulation leads to oscillating economic activity. When […]

read more

All the great religions include a ban on usury, the charging of unjust interest, and Islamic Banking still practices this principle today. Very worldly businesses that also practice interest-free banking include the Swedish JAK-Genossenschaftsbank, in which customers save and lend money without interest, regional currencies, or the idea of a currency with a “circulation incentive”, […]

read more

Islamic Banking describes banking business according to Islamic, Sharia principles. Peculiarities of banking based on the Koran include not only a ban on charging interest but also the avoidance of speculative business and unethical investments of clients’ money such as in alcohol, tobacco and pornography. Islamic Banking thus includes on the one hand the issuance […]

read more

WIR Bank serves small and medium sized companies across Switzerland with seven branches and two main businesses, which grew out of the self-help organization WIR Economic Circle, founded by Werner Zimmermann in 1934. What began as a network of 300 firms and private individuals today includes 50,000 small and medium sized enterprises, which, with the […]

read more

The JAK Members’ Bank (swedisch: JAK Medlemsbank) is the first bank in Sweden to create an interest-free banking system for its members, based on the JAK Bank model. The abbreviation JAK stands for the Swedish words Jord, Arbete und Kapital – land, work, capital. The bank was founded in 1965 as a cooperative savings and […]

read more