I don’t think we should wind down the financing of projects currently essential to our life. I think we should increase lending and back more promising innovative projects that would allow us to shift more away from fossil fuels as well as build more renewable energy / dams and battery energy storage
I also think the government should back more projects. Note that none of that requires to abandon fossil fuel lending. The lenders will shift themselves as fossil fuels become less viable
Realistically lenders who start shifting polluting assets don’t wind them down and nor does the company they lend to. They just sell the projects to private unlisted companies who don’t have ESG concerns from retail investors^1.
Instead of greenwashing and pretending fossil fuels are too dirty to handle, we should be rapidly innovating and pouring money into decarbonisation so we can naturally abandon a worse technology.
I’m interested to understand how banks with a track record of pouring funds into fossil fuels form part of the solution? (without being forced to change their ways)
Do you have any examples of banks operating in this sort of “activist investor” style manner? Even if they were, how would we be likely to know?
Rest assured, this is an attempt at discussion, not argument
Banks should lend to what is commercially viable - alternative energy is cheaper and currently energy prices are tied to gas. So the answer is, seek approval, finance and then pay back the loans. Get it running before winter and enjoy the price hikes.
Once the time for gas and oil isn’t profitable enough that the firms redirect to other things, then it’s the time to stop financing both gas and oil. Until then, it’s a duty for our state to ensure that we have sufficient reserves for strategic purposes, in my opinion. The fact we don’t have them is grotesque and a travesty
Chicken and egg though isn’t it. The default for heating new homes built today is still gas central heating, and worse those houses aren’t even designed to accomodate heat pumps or similar in the future as retrofit options.
While that’s happening, how do you stop prospecting gas from being commercially viable? If the answer is ‘you can’t’ then how do you stop electricity price from being fundamentally driven by gas pricing?
If the past few years have taught us anything it’s that this stuff can’t be left to the free market. Whether or not it should be banks instigating or reacting to change is another question I guess.
To those who may or may not be interested, I tried to reopen a Triodos account to park some funds that I’m “looking after” so to speak (interest free expense) and the experience has not been good!
Stuck in a doom loop with error messages applying from my old profile, I was not advised for two weeks that I needed to follow a different flow. The new application is now stuck in the queue with the rest, but the old profile still seems to be causing issues. I’ve been offered compensation once the account opens.
It’s a shame, perhaps a lesson to leave 1p in case you want to move back, but not a great experience. Why do the majority of non major banks seem to have bottlenecks & issues like this! I’ve left and rejoined high street banks without even a hint of a problem!
Might have to revert to Nationwide for this purpose if they don’t sort this out, as I understand they have fairly decent credentials (so much so the Triodos Bond fund has them in the portfolio) but it’s not on the same level of transparency as Triodos.
it’s not as dodgy as it sounds. Funds set aside for a family member & set aside to pay off some flights on an interest free period. I’m not chasing the best rate so to speak.
I’ve decided to give Triodos Bank a go. The onboarding process was super smooth, and it took a day for my application to be approved and access to the app granted. The app seems modern so far (and Apple Pay is due to land soon – whatever soon means).
I’ve started the CASS from my current Nationwide Current Account. Let’s see how I fare with Triodos. It’s been a while since anyone has posted on this thread, so is anyone currently using them at all? If so, what are your experiences?
You clearly have your reasons for wanting to be part of a banking environment that actually charges account holders for the privilege of actually holding a personal account. I’ve read all of the Triodos blurb and whilst they make great valid points about their ethical stances around charging their customer collective for the services they provide, I personally couldn’t just give £3 a month away just to share the burden of debt for those who find money management difficult, amongst the other reasons cited.
As it is, my Wife and I have a Nationwide Flex plus account which now costs us £18 a month, but at least we are getting all of the appropriate insurance cover that we need and actually make use of.
One of the only things I actually admire Triodos Bank for, is the fact that they don’t offer any form of overdraft to their customers, something I wish plenty of other banks would cease offering. From that statement, you can tell I don’t have any form of overdraft whatsoever with any bank, nor do I want one or need one. I do however know people who rely on their overdraft month to month and year to year, many of them claiming they couldn’t manage financially without it but still they manage to go on an annual holiday abroad, pay for their streaming subscriptions, their mobile phone contracts and the PCP payment on their cars.
Anyway, I hope your account with Triodos Bank goes well and your actual user experience is better than most of the non fee accounts out there.
I don’t have any particular reason for moving to Triodos, other than wanting to try out their bank offering and the ethical stance does help a little (being with Nationwide currently shows that I do like trying to be ethical). The fee isn’t really an issue, and I haven’t even thought about it to be honest. As for Triodos not providing an overdraft, I haven’t thankfully ever needed one.
I’ve been super happy with Nationwide and frankly, I’ll be a little sad to leave them. They’ve provided a service that’s just worked, and I’ve only had to use the card reader 3 times which wasn’t an issue at all. It’s been a good 6 months but I may be back with them if Triodos doesn’t work out for me.
The CASS should start tomorrow, so let’s see how smoothly that goes.
A paid account should be able to do everything, I wouldn’t be able to pay cash in (which I rarely am still gifted) or pay a cheque in (so they do cheques, I haven’t had one in years but knowing my luck I’d get one…)
I’d still need an account elsewhere so however ethical Triodos are I’d still need another account elsewhere.
I feel ethics wise Nationwide are good enough and I like the customer service.
I want to like Triodos, but there’s just too many holes for it to be my sole account.
Triodos claims the £3 charge is because otherwise those with overdrafts subsidise those who don’t need them. The nonsense with this claim is that Triodos no longer offers overdrafts . . . .
I believe in ethical banking, but not at the expense of service. Ethics and good service is not an oxymoron - although many ethical providers use their ethical stance as an excuse for a sub par experience. Triodos is dreadful. The Co-operative Bank is much better, especially now it has been bought by a mutual, the Coventry Building Society.
but I may be back with them if Triodos doesn’t work out for me.