Since the 1980s, worldwide there have been numerous socioeconomic initiatives driven by ideas that differ from capitalist concepts such as accumulation of wealth, maximizing of profits and consumerism. These new initiatives appear all around the economic cycle: resources management, production, marketing, consumption, the financial system, the distribution of surplus and the circulation of currencies. One of the names most commonly associated with such initiatives is social and solidarity economy. In the future these initiatives may provide an alternative to the current dominant system.

Financial exclusion, while producing greater social exclusion and poverty, is contributing to the emergence of new types of organization in finance, banking and non-banking. Based on ethics and solidarity, such organizations favour the inclusion of the most marginalized groups. Ethical banking and community banking (including credit unions) offer an alternative to conventional banking and are increasingly being accepted. Moreover, civil society itself is leading a movement through which new non-banking ethical and solidarity finance initiatives are also emerging. Examples include financial services cooperatives, integrated cooperatives, collaborative finance, self-financed communities, time banks, social currencies and community development banks, among others. This paper analyses the main aspects arising globally from these processes of change, and highlights potential risks where these initiatives are used by large financial and non-financial corporations through new finance technologies (FinTech). Ethical and solidarity finance have become an appropriate instrument for inclusion, but certain risks remain that must be taken into account.