Financial services firm Virgin Money collaborated with FinTech data expert company, Life Moments, to focus on the development of the sustainability elements for its business banking customers.
The agreement will contribute towards Virgin Money’s ESG commitments, including its aim to halve carbon emissions across everything it finances by 2030. It also forms part of its commitment relating to the recent £35m award from the Banking Competition Remedies Capability and Innovation Fund.
With the new deal, Life Moments will work on digitising and capturing customer responses to an ESG benchmarking tool, developed by the Bank in conjunction with Future-Fit Business. It will also help to integrate the results and data into the Bank’s new Business Current Account Wellness Tracker, providing tailored digital coaching for businesses.
Virgin Money joined the Future-Fit Development Council last year. The tool, which can be used by any business – whether they are a Virgin Money customer or not – has a set of questions to help a company know its current position via both an ESG score and guidance on the steps that could be taken to create a more sustainable model.
Highlighting the importance of sustainability, corporate and mid-market director at Virgin Money Graeme Sands said, “All businesses, whatever their size or industry, should be thinking about their approach to sustainability, ensuring that any future growth strategy takes into consideration the ESG impact of their operations. This isn’t an easy task, but those that do so often find new opportunities and we are committed to working with our customers and partners, like Life Moments, to provide the support and insight that allows them to work towards becoming a more sustainable business.”
Within business banking, Virgin Money plans to increase lending by an extra £2.2bn by the end of 2025 with more than £100m of new lending going to clients pursuing environmental, social and governance aims.
Life Moments has worked with Virgin Money since early 2020 and has helped develop as well as launch Virgin Money’s Home Buying Coach app, designed to simplify the home purchasing process ad help first-time homebuyers on the property ladder.
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