Tandem transforms from credit card into eco-bank with 0.5% ‘green’ savings account launch

Tandem’s transformation over the last few years has been mighty confusing, but things at the bank seem to be settling down, as demonstrated by the launch of its ‘green’ savings account on Friday.

As a reminder, Tandem arrived back in 2016 with plans to build a digital bank—plans which were subsequently derailed by a failed funding round, Tandem acquiring Harrods Bank to secure a banking licence, launching a range of credit cards, then cutting said credit cards after a switch to subscription pricing flopped.

Today Tandem is reinventing itself as a ‘green digital bank’ following its acquisition of Allium Lending Group last September, and buying up £44.6m in unsecured consumer loans from Honeycomb and a £100m mortgage book from Bank and Clients.

On Friday Tandem launched a highly competitive 0.5 per cent easy access savings account, which it says is just part of a full suite of ‘green’ products being rolled out.

“We’re on a mission to educate and empower consumers about green finance. We’re making it simpler and quicker for them to achieve sustainable living, both with respect to the environment and their money,” says Ricky Knox,Tandem’s CEO and co-founder.

Quite what makes this savings account ‘green’ is less clear, however, besides an implication on Tandem’s website that the deposits will go towards an upcoming ‘green mortgage’.

Tandem as a company has made no claims about its own environmental credentials, it’s certainly not registered as a B-Corp or similar, and the company has yet to make any disclosures about the composition of the loan portfolios it has acquired in the past few months.

Knox and his team certainty still have a way to go on their mission to educate consumers.