ESG Success Stories: Featuring Currensea, Salat Money, Yapily and more

This August at Fintech Times, we want to highlight some of the amazing things fintechs are doing around the world. We always hear about “the latest breakthrough innovation that does good for society,” but do these innovations do good for those already in an advantageous position, or do they help make the world of finance more accessible?

As The Fintech Times reaches the end of fintech for good focus this month, we wanted to close by looking at a number of success stories. Earlier this week we looked at ‘Pandemic Pivot’ success stories, and now our focus is shifting to look specifically at environmental, social and governance (ESG) success stories – an increasingly important factor in business operations.

Investment in renewal and sustainability

Steve Sandersgo-to-market strategist and business advisor at Business Growth Mechanics said: “Dunoon in Scotland embarked on a journey to renew and increase the sustainability of their community. In that process, the investors and advisors recognized that this was an opportunity to study more closely the consequences created by transformation and then the ongoing the operation of such a community.

“Many examples have emerged of ways to reuse materials or to invest sustainably in infrastructure that builds resilience and ethics into the fabric of that society. So much so that investors are using this to create a reusable template for others to follow around the the world if they choose to do so.

“Throughout this project, the local community and all those in the many horizons of supply chains serving that community and the tourists who visit have all been treated with care and consideration. The reinforcement of positivity achieved through this has and will continue to reinforce the success of the Dunoon project. “

Helping customers give back to the causes of their choice

James Lynnco-founder of Currencythe multi-currency travel card company, explained the company’s efforts to offset some of the environmental impact of the travel industry and its work with charities: “The travel industry is often criticized for not doing enough to tackle the environmental impact, but travelers need an easy, convenient and cost-effective way to compensate for the holiday.

“When we launched Currensea, we wanted to ensure that we could not only offer travelers the lowest foreign exchange (FX) fees when spending abroad, but we also wanted to give them an effective method of giving back to some of the causes closest to their hearts. Through our collaborations with Plastic bank and Three pointstravelers can choose to support environmental causes every time they save on foreign exchange fees – every 12p saved plants a tree while every £1 removes 100 bottles from the ocean.

“Although as a business this is our first summer unaffected by covid, our customers have already planted over 100,000 trees and removed more than 1.2 million bottles from the ocean by supporting environmental causes every time they spend abroad – all while saving money on their holiday spending By avoiding high rates and hidden costs, we ensure every transaction is at least 85 per cent – ​​and up to 100 per cent – ​​cheaper than any deal offered by high street banks and allows people to donate some or all of those savings to protect the planet.

“Of course, ESG is not only about the environment, and it is important that fintech supports sustainability beyond compensating. Last year we launched our ‘powered by’ program – a unique offer for charities which allows them to work with Currensea to issue branded cards to their supporters, enabling them to top up UK spend or convert savings made on overseas spend to charity donations.

“In just over six months since launching ‘powered by’ we are already supporting a number of charities including Royal Trinity Hospice and St Martin-in-the-Fields. We also collaborated with Knight Frank to give its employees a brand card as part of the company’s new employee benefits package, so employees can support environmental protection Surfers towards sewers.”

Salat Money and Yapily’s partnership

CEO of the lending organization, Salad money, Tim Rooneycommented how its partnership with Yapily can have a positive impact: “Today in the UK, thousands of NHS and public sector employees are unable to improve their finances due to poor credit scores and lack of access to the right financial products. In direct response to this, we teamed up with open banking platform Yapily to provide affordable credit to key workers across the UK, removing the need for applicants to have good credit scores.

“In addition to providing access to credit where users may have previously been denied, Yapily’s open banking platform enables us to offer a benefits checking service to our customers. Essentially, this is a free online tool that provides key workers with an automatic benefits assessment to help them understand what they are entitled to, with research showing that as much as £16 billion in benefits remain unclaimed in the UK.

“Take Lucy, for example. Lucy, a nurse from Wales, has previously struggled to raise her credit score. In March she needed to borrow £500 as short-term help to get through some challenging personal circumstances. Using Salad Money, Lucy was able to figure out how to best repay her loan which supported her during a financially difficult time.

“Now the tool is in demand more than ever as the UK faces an unprecedented cost of living crisis, to which the NHS and public sector workers are particularly vulnerable. Since launching in January 2022, together with Yapily, we have helped individuals identify a total of £10.1m in unclaimed benefits.”

Iain McDougall, the commercial director of Yapily, the open banking organisation, elaborated on this partnership and how he sees them coming together to help people through the cost of living crisis: “Open banking has the power to transform the financial prosperity of millions of people. In the context of the cost of living crisis, responsible lending has never been more important. Open banking is a force for good, improving affordability and transparency to help people break volatile debt cycles and ultimately access the right financial products and services for them.

“So how does it work? Using Yapily’s open banking platform, companies like Salad Money can instantly retrieve customers’ bank account transactions and analysts’ spending patterns to perform a fairer, more holistic credit assessment. This is a clear example of how open banking enables people to access credit where they were previously denied, and in this case, identify tangible changes in their income that are immediately available – at a time when they need it most.

“Every individual should have access to useful tools for managing money, improving their financial well-being and feeling in control of their finances. Opening a bank now makes this possible. There is tremendous power in using this technology to improve the financial lives of people and businesses, not just in the UK but all over the world.”

Researches and selects the right partners

Laura Pommermanaging director at Energy Funders, an investment platform for US oil and gas wells, explains the importance of carefully researching and selecting partners and why it is important to consider the impact decisions will have on the public: “As an independent fintech investment platform, one of the most attractive things about my role in EnergyFunders is that I have absolute control over which wells we invest in and why. Hailing from Boulder, Colorado, environmental protection is truly a priority for me, although no one can deny society’s enormous dependence on oil and gas. While I can’t stop an entire industry from drilling new wells, what I can do is be very selective with our projects, our partner operators and choose investments that will cause the least damage to the environment.

“In addition to drilling traditional oil wells, we have also launched a fund that aims to exploit stranded natural gas wells. Normally, these wells are unable to connect to pipelines or flares, and allow natural gas to be burned into the atmosphere without regard to the impact on the environment. In our case, we are able to harness that natural gas to generate electricity that powers bitcoin mines, another controversial energy consumer right now.

“While most bitcoin miners draw large amounts of electricity from the grid that you and I depend on, our wells are completely off-grid and have no impact on the public’s energy needs. In fact, using previously wasted resources, democratizing energy investment and helping the energy industry with opening the mind to cryptocurrency, which we believe is the future of the digital economy.”