Eco-products in financial services
LetoBank, now known in Russia as Post Bank (it’s co-owned by a banking group VTB and the Russian Post) launched a project in 2015 that until 2019 allowed its users to plant over 3 million trees
A short post to compare innovation happens in different parts of the world and often they are similar in shape and form yet differ in size: in January 2020 Bunq, a dutch digital bank reported that transactions of its customers allowed it to sponsor and plant over 40 000 trees in just 8 weeks.
Kudos to climate-conscious customers who follow good nudging effects that correspond with both their personal goals and belief systems and can help the institution respond to the global effects of climate change. Big financial corporations are actively developing their own elements — be those net-CO emission or associating with a climate protection goal that is also beneficial for the business long-term.
Talking about Russian banks, several follow this as well: despite being the country of oil and coal, energy still costs dear and so banks adopt energy-saving initiatives — especially if this concerns heating and insulating branches in those parts of the country where it can become really cold. They promote digital payments, since it would mean installing less amount of ATMs and spend less fuel to service them and process the cash load.
One bank, VTB, recently has announced it will start producing bank cards from biodegradable plastic. Yet one bank bested them all with regards to climate-protection and biodiversity support and this started on a personal whim of its CEO. The now known Post Bank of Russia — a vast operation that was born from equally ambitious lean POS and lite-office operation called Leto Bank (or “Summer Bank” should one translate the name) — launched a project in 2015 allowing users to spend a few moments on the website after a cash loan / card application or during the ATM request / response session on their ATMs — to plan a tree or two or several in remote areas of the country.
From 2015 till 2019 it allowed customers to plan over 3 million trees and so it moved the experience to a lesser format of a card (consumers in Russia love cash-back so hardly it goes on par with experience where you want to do good in the right moment).
