Sustainable Banking

What is sustainable banking?

Everybody wants to do their bit to help preserve the environment. With sustainable banking you can. In the EU, 94% of people say that the environment is important to them[1]. By promoting sustainable banking, financial institutions can raise the awareness of their customers about the environmental impact of their spending and help them act in a more sustainable way.

Finance goes green.

Consumers and governments are putting more and more pressure on banks to implement sustainable banking. Banks and financial service providers are also thinking more ahead and are currently addressing the need and opportunities to promote sustainable development. One way a bank can move towards more sustainable banking is to help customers manage their personal carbon footprint using banking data.

Based on the vast volumes of data available to them, banks can provide their customers with a precise estimate of the carbon footprint of their transactions with merchants. They can also create features that incentivise their customers to change their behaviour. Further,banks can make it easier for customers to subscribe to green bonds and other ESG-compliant products.

A win-win for everybody.

What’s its appeal? Everybody benefits from it – merchants, banks, individual citizens and our planet itself. Harnessing the full power of banking data, e.g. through Open Banking, banks can develop their customer relationships, explore new financial products and generate additional revenue streams. They can also enhance their brands by committing to the innovations. Merchants can engage their customers and promote new, more sustainable products. Meanwhile, consumers get a detailed picture of their personal environmental footprint and find out how they can minimize the impact of their spending on the environment.

Credibility challenges.

Neobanks and digital challengers are already integrating sustainability-as-a-service solutions to differentiate themselves and appeal to younger generations. At the same time, banks need to avoid exposure to any accusations of greenwashing. To incentivise sustainable spending, banks will also need to embrace the insights of behavioural economics and nudging[2].

Solutions & who we serve

Worldline is a sustainable banking pioneer. We offer banks and other financial organisations the opportunity to provide sustainability-oriented services to their customers, such as personalised sustainability advice based on financial data.

To meet growing market demand, we have partnered with fintechs to provide a carbon footprint calculation service to banks across Europe. Our solution enables banks to evaluate their customers’ carbons emissions based on their banking transactions. This is the first step in our strategy to deliver a comprehensive set of sustainable banking services.