As much as banks and financial institutions are inherently damaging the way they are currently set up (I'm referring to fractional reserve banking, central banking and in general the charging of interest), there are some banks which are better than others.

In the UK, there are these two that I know of:

[en.wikipedia.org] The Co-operative Bank

[en.wikipedia.org] Triodos Bank

They avoid investing in or buying shares/stock in certain industries (like military, oil and so on) and for Triodos they actually actively invest in "ethical" companies involved in renewable energy, organic farming, etc... This strategy of using the money from peoples savings in this way has allowed them to grow consistently and avoid any of the credit crunch fallout that commercial banks have got involved in.

There are some in the US too, and in other places.

List of ethical banks, from wiki [en.wikipedia.org]

Just a thought if you are thinking of opening up an account or transferring one. There is a different choice out there.

Cheers,
J