Is the NEF, the first “ethical” bank in France, the armed wing of anthroposophy, a movement of thought suspected of sectarian aberrations? Or was she wrongly accused, as she denies?
The controversy returned to the carpet last November, when the Miviludes report was published, devoting a chapter to anthroposophy and in which it wrote that the current “exerts a preponderant influence on certain ethical banking establishments with financial power Extremely important “. And to cite as an example the Nef, whose head office is in Vaulx-en-Velin. Founded by two followers of the anthroposophist movement, the structure prides itself on cultivating “total political, religious or philosophical independence”.
In Lyon, where the municipality took out a loan of 3 million euros from the establishment in 2021, the opposition quickly took up the subject. “I do not think that the people of Lyon appreciate that public money continues to legitimize a bank under the influence of an esoteric and sectarian movement”, tackled then Ludovic Hernandez, of the group “For Lyon” to which the former mayor Gérard Collomb belongs, forgetting in passing that the same Gérard Collomb had also used the NEF twice in 2012 and 2014.
All criteria green
Requested by the first deputy of the city of Lyon Audrey Henocque, eager to have details, the Banque de France and the APCR (prudential control and resolution authority) provided, four months later, answers supposed to close the debate. According to our information, they indicated that there was “no problem” with the NEF, specifying that “all the criteria were green” and recalling that the establishment had “all the approvals since 1988”. Nothing to report on the side of the financial criteria scrutinized.
Responsible for examining all bank loans to ensure that there is no financing of illegal structures, the APCR has not detected anything suspicious. “All members of governance are checked. There are no problems with the members of the executive board, ”assured the Banque de France to the city of Lyon.
Accused of sectarian aberrations in 1999 by the Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry into Sects (the ancestor of Miviludes), the NEF filed a complaint for defamation and won the case in court.