Save, a Fintech company that helps people earn higher yields on their spending and savings, announced that it has “added a new Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) portfolio that provides a yield from, amongst other ETFs, the iShares ESG Aware ETFs.”
According to Morningstar Direct, ” assets in global sustainable funds “were at $2.24 trillion at the end of September.” With their Market Savings, Save is “meeting this market opportunity with the first ESG-oriented savings product in banking.”
In addition to Save’s sustainable investment strategy, the program “supports sustainable projects, through a U.S. based tree-planting project in collaboration with Reforest’Action.” For the program, Save is “underwriting the planting of 1 tree for every $5,000 deposited in its ESG Market Savings, up to $250 million in deposits, promoting planting up to 50,000 trees in upstate New York.”
Forests are “the world’s largest land-based carbon sink, and forest ecosystems support 80% of the world’s biodiversity.” Planting trees “has many benefits, including improving the climate, biodiversity, health, and employment.”
Save’s sponsored trees “are in Cobleskill, NY on a former organic dairy farm.” Chestnut, hazelnut, red oak, acadia, persimmon, and black walnut “are the varieties of trees which will limit soil erosion and improve soil quality.”
The ESG portfolio “seeks a similar return to common market benchmarks while maximizing ESG characteristics and excluding companies with certain practices.” The ETFs that make up Save’s ESG portfolio “select companies deemed acceptable under the specific environmental, social, and governance rules.” Since the ESG portfolio was launched, “approximately 10% of people that sign up to Market Savings are selecting the Save ESG portfolio.”
Michael Nelskyla, Founder and CEO of Save, said:
“Consumers are increasingly turning to ethical choices in all aspects of life including investments. We see it as our fiduciary responsibility to offer ethical investing through our Market Savings program for those consumers who seek these choices.”
Save, an SEC-registered investment adviser, “expects the return potential of its Market Savings program on its innovative Savetech platform to be higher than traditional high-yield interest savings accounts, all while customers’ deposits remain FDIC insured.”
The program yield “is not guaranteed but will vary according to underlying market performance.”
As noted in the update, Save® Advisers, LLC is “an SEC-registered investment advisor and banking solutions provider that is bringing sophisticated investments to consumers looking for higher returns on their savings without risks of the stock market.”
Save was “created by a team of financial industry veterans and technologists with experience at such well-respected financial firms and organizations as Goldman Sachs, UBS, and NASA.”
As mentioned in the announcement, Reforest’Action is “a B Corp certified company whose mission is to preserve, restore and create (agro)forestry ecosystems around the world to help address climate change and biodiversity loss.”
To achieve this, Reforest’Action supports and develops projects that “generate ecosystem services that are monitored and assessed over time.”
Since its inception in 2010, Reforest’Action has “implemented more than 1,400 projects in 43 countries, mainly through funding from over 3,000 companies.”
