Building Ethics Into Cauri From Day One

This week we found ourselves circling back to the same question again and again: what does it mean to build a bank that is truly ethical? Not ethical as a slogan or a side project, but as part of its very bones.

Very early on, before we had a product roadmap or even a clear business model, we sat down and wrote out our ethics and values. It might have seemed premature at the time, but it has become our anchor. A way of holding ourselves to account when the ideas start flowing fast, and a reminder of the kind of business we want Cauri to be.

At the heart of this reflection is credit. The basic role of a bank hasn’t changed much in hundreds of years: care for people’s money, reward them with interest, and provide credit when it’s needed. But credit is complicated.

On one hand, debt can transform lives. A mortgage can bring the security of a home. A car loan can unlock new opportunities. Used well, credit is a stepping stone to stability and growth.

On the other hand, debt can weigh heavily. Interest can quietly snowball, and what once felt manageable can become a trap. Too often, people end up borrowing just to pay for old borrowing. It’s a cycle that grinds people down.

We can’t in good conscience build a bank that turns a blind eye to that. So we’ve made a commitment: we will not offer credit where we believe it would do more harm than good.

The challenge is to hold that line while still running a healthy, competitive business. That’s the balance we are working on now — how to look after people’s savings with fair interest, while only extending credit in ways that genuinely help.

Holding to that principle while building a sustainable business wont be easy, but we believe it’s possible. And maybe that’s the bigger role for Cauri. To prove to the industry that banking can be different, that you can grow a financial institution without exploiting the very people it’s meant to serve. If we can hold that line, perhaps we give others permission to do the same.

That’s the vision I keep coming back to. A bank that doesn’t just take part in the system as it is, but helps nudge it somewhere better.

Tj