Reserved for the first 100,000 customers in 2024/2025, La Banque Postale’s impact card is available on the Visa Classic and Visa Premier ranges at current rates. The additional €5 annual contribution from the impact card will be donated in full to WWF France, which runs projects to protect and restore nature.
La Banque Postale, in collaboration with WWF France, is the first traditional bank in France (1) to launch an impact bank card in support of the ecological transition. „With this new card, available in post offices and online, La Banque Postale offers its customers a banking offer where the deposits will be used to finance the energy renovation of housing.” – according to the press release.
After the impact home loan, the Bank is continuing to expand its range of responsible products to better meet environmental, social and regional challenges, in line with its new extra-financial objectives arising from its status as a mission-led company.
The impact card is a new offer from La Banque Postale, aimed at promoting responsible finance. The card offers four distinctive features:
. Financing energy renovation: all deposits in current accounts associated with an impact card will contribute to the financing of mortgages intended for the energy renovation of low-performance housing, in particular thermal sieves.
. Support for WWF France, which runs programmes to protect and restore biodiversity, by donating the entire additional annual card fee to the NGO.
. An exclusive design in partnership with WWF France: the card features a unique design highlighting biodiversity.
. Support for responsible consumption through advice and tools that will be made available free of charge to cardholders.
Vincent Menvielle, Marketing Director at La Banque Postale:
„The launch of this impact card, developed jointly with our partner WWF France, is a new milestone in La Banque Postale’s strategy for of a just transition. It enables our customers to act in favour of the energy transition, by allocating their deposits to the financing of our impact real estate loans, and to support an NGO deploying biodiversity projects„.
Véronique Andrieux, Director General of WWF France:
“WWF supports the impact card in a global approach to accelerate the financing of the ecological transition. The card is part of our strategic partnership with La Banque Postale aimed at transforming its processes. A key area in this respect is to support the emergence of more responsible offers. The impact bank card also supports the actions of WWF France. This collaboration illustrates the collective commitment necessary between companies and organizations like WWF to meet climate and ecological challenges, and contribute to the protection of biodiversity.”
A concrete commitment to the climate
The deposits of the accounts associated with an impact bank card are entirely devoted to the financing and refinancing of energy renovation projects for housing, in order to contribute to the fight against climate change. In France, greenhouse gas emissions from the building sector account for 25% of global emissions. There are also 4.8 million thermal leaks in France out of the country’s 21 million main residences.
Thus, the money deposited in the current account is mobilized in support of projects that make sense for customers: it is used to grant loans to individual customers who are planning to buy old property and renovate it at the same time, thereby taking concrete action against climate change by enabling energy-efficient homes to be renovated. Customers’ funds will of course remain available at all times for their own personal use.
An Independent Third Party (ITP) will verify each year that the deposits are properly allocated to these projects, and the results will be published on the Bank’s website. La Banque Postale guarantees that every euro deposited in an account linked to an impact card contributes directly to the energy renovation of housing in France.
Support for WWF France, in particular actions to protect biodiversity
Reserved for the first 100,000 customers in 2024/2025, La Banque Postale’s impact card is available on the Visa Classic and Visa Premier ranges at current rates. The additional €5 annual contribution from the impact card will be donated in full to WWF France, which runs projects to protect and restore nature. In fact, 60% of 18-34 year-olds (2) say they would be prepared to pay more for an impact bank card than for a standard card if the contribution were donated to an association.
Support for more responsible consumption
Impact cardholders will have access to regular advice on responsible consumption, as well as free services such as Carbo, the individual carbon footprint simulator that works by analysing bank spending, and the cashback programme, which offers a selection of offers linked to responsible consumption.
La Banque Postale, committed to a just transition
As a mission-led company since February 2022, La Banque Postale has placed the just transition at the heart of its strategy and governance. Like its parent company,La Poste Group, La Banque Postale announced in 2018 its objective of achieving „net zero emissions” by 2040, 10 years ahead of the deadline set by the Paris climate agreement.
In 2021, it became the first European bank to have its decarbonisation trajectories validated by the Science Based Target initiative (SBTi) and announced its definitive exit from the fossil fuel sector. Today, this objective has almost been achieved, with La Banque Postale’s net exposure to fossil fuels representing 0.01% of its corporate portfolio in the last quarter of 2023. This approach remains one of the most ambitious in the world, as highlighted by the NGO Reclaim Finance (3), and is unanimously recognised by the extra-financial rating agencies: La Banque Postale is one of the world’s leading banks in terms of CSR (4).
In addition to decarbonising its banking activities, La Banque Postale is committed to transforming its offering in order to make its customers players in the energy transition: for example, in 2023, La Banque Postale launched the first impact home loan offering for individuals, aimed at removing the obstacles to carrying out energy renovation work when buying a home. It is therefore particularly logical to direct deposits from accounts associated with an impact card towards some of these loans to speed up their
development.
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La Banque Postale, together with its subsidiaries including CNP Assurances, is a major international bancassurance group, ranked 11th in the euro zone based on total assets. With its diversified business model and wide range of affordable products, the Group partners with 20 million individuals, businesses, and local authorities in France. A subsidiary of La Poste Groupe, La Banque Postale offers local banking services through 17,000 contact points, including 7,000 post offices, throughout France.
The new strategic plan, “La Banque Postale 2030”, is designed to support La Banque Postale’s ambition to become France’s favourite bank, thanks to an integrated, multi-channel bancassurance offer organised around its three brands: La Banque Postale, its day-to-day bank and Louvre Banque Privée, its wealth bank.
As a strong corporate citizen, La Banque Postale is working towards a just transition by integrating environmental and social impact objectives into the heart of its governance. A company with a mission since March 2022, La Banque Postale aims to achieve zero net emissions by 2040. It is one of the leading non-financial rating agencies.
1 – Among the top 6 French banks
2 – Study carried out in December 2023 on 1000 LBP customers and 1000 prospective customers (Discurv – ex Made in vote)
3 – Oil and Gas Policy Tracker – September 2024
4 – Rating 2023 Moody’s ESG Solutions (ex-Vigeo Eiris)
Banking 4.0 – „how was the experience for you”
„So many people are coming here to Bucharest, people that I see and interact on linkedin and now I get the change to meet them in person. It was like being to the Football World Cup but this was the World Cup on linkedin in payments and open banking.”
Many more interesting quotes in the video below:
