Wainwright Bank and Trust Co. is well known around Boston as one of the city's more progressive banks, but it has little name recognition elsewhere.
That could soon change now that Wainwright is on a prominent national stock index of socially responsible companies.
Daily trading of Wainwright's usually thinly traded stock is up about 50% since Nov. 16, when it announced it had made the KLD Domini 400 Social Index.
The volume could increase more once Domini's Social Equity Fund is adjusted to reflect Wainwright's addition to the index. (The Domini 400 is the benchmark for the $1.2 billion-asset mutual fund, which was founded in 1991.)
Being on the index "has helped to raise our profile," said Steven F. Young, Wainwright's senior vice president.
Wainwright is by far the smallest of the 22 banks on the index, whose 400 members meet social responsibility criteria set by the independent investment research provider KLD Research and Analytics Inc. Others include Wachovia Corp., Fifth Third Bancorp, Washington Mutual Inc., and (the next-smallest after Wainwright) the $2.6 billion-asset Heartland Financial USA Inc. of Dubuque, Iowa.
A solid majority of the companies on the KLD index are large enough to be on the Standard & Poor's 500 as well. It has 50 small companies.
Tom Kuh, a senior vice president at KLD, said his firm was familiar with Wainwright because KLD is in Boston and because Wainwright had won several awards for the types of activities the index recognizes.
Mr. Kuh said he was particularly impressed with Wainwright's activism in Boston's gay and lesbian community, including having openly gay board members and helping to establish Pride in Business, an organization that supports gay- and lesbian-owned businesses.
He also cited Wainwright's "green loan" program, which offers favorable rates to environmentally conscious businesses; its dedication to lending in low-income communities; and the banking services it provides to nonprofits.
"Wainwright is an unusual bank and is a strong advocate for communities outside the mainstream," Mr. Kuh said.
Wainwright's addition was made possible by KLD's decision earlier this year to pull Bank of America Corp. off the index. Mr. Kuh said B of A was removed in part because it merged with FleetBoston Financial Corp., which was not on the index, and also because it was fined in March by the Securities and Exchange Commission for improper trades.
Without Bank of America, the index's financial services weight was much lower, so KLD was able to add another bank.
