La Banque Postale launches an impact card with WWF

As a company with a mission since February 2022, La Banque Postale is today pursuing its strategy of deploying responsible and social initiatives. On the specific theme of payment, this mobilization takes the form of enriching the range of payment methods offered by the Bank. After the voice card, La Banque Postale is now planning to launch an eco-responsible card.

FACTS

• The new bank card offered jointly by La Banque Postale and WWF France is presented as an impact bank card capable of supporting the ecological transition.

• It will provide customers with a payment service linked to an account, whose deposits will be used to finance energy-efficient home renovation.

• In addition to mobilizing deposits from current accounts linked to the card, this payment offer also stands out from other offerings on the market thanks to :

  • its support for WWF France, since the card's additional annual fees, amounting to 5 euros, will be donated to the NGO,

  • its exclusive WWF design,

  • free access to advice and tools (such as Carbo, the individual carbon footprint simulator that works by analyzing bank spending) to help cardholders consume more responsibly,

  • made from recycled PVC.

• The new offer is available in post offices and online, in a limited edition for the first 100,000 customers. It is offered on the Visa Classic and Visa Premier card ranges, at current rates.

CHALLENGES

• Banking on partnerships: While La Banque Postale signed partnerships with CB, Fintech HandSome (housed in the Platform58 group's startup incubator) and the Thales group to launch its new eco-responsible card, the bank is now banking on its partnership with a leading environmental protection association.

• Fulfilling expectations: While its voice card offer was aimed specifically at postal bank customers with visual impairments, this new card proposed in partnership with WWF takes a different approach to offering affinity services. Rather than meeting the specific needs of a particular target, this card is designed above all to satisfy the expectations of a segment of customers who are particularly concerned about the environment and animal welfare. In fact, according to a study carried out in December 2023 on 1,000 LBP customers and 1,000 prospective La Banque Postale customers, 60% of 18-34 year-olds would be prepared to pay an additional amount for an impact bank card.

• Densifying its strategy: La Banque Postale has just published its Climate & Nature Report, justified the sale of Lendopolis by its ecological commitment, and committed itself to the renovation of schools. Today, La Banque Postale is continuing to green its activities in the field of impact payments, having also launched an impact mortgage offer with WWF.
  Participating in the ecological transition of housing: According to figures put forward by La Banque Postale and WWF France, greenhouse gas emissions from the building sector account for 25% of France's overall emissions. According to the Observatoire national de la rénovation énergétique, 4.8 of the country's 21 million primary residences are thermal flats

MARKET PERSPECTIVE

• This isn't the first time that the La Poste group has made a commitment alongside the WWF France association. La Poste has been positioned in the global Science Based Targets initiative developed by WWF since 2017.

• Already in September 2021, and as a founding member of the Net Zero Banking Alliance, the group was also positioning itself as a pioneer in the ecological transition. As early as 2012, it had committed itself to a carbon-neutral approach, particularly with regard to the logistical issues associated with the Group's delivery business.

• And at that time, La Poste Group signed a cooperation agreement with WWF France to benefit from its support and expertise in pursuing its carbon neutrality approach.

• La Banque Postale and WWF France have also been partners since 2021. La Banque Postale has even joined, as a founding member, the Nature Impact initiative, the first fund based on the logic of payments and practices benefiting Ecosystem Services (ESP) that combine biodiversity protection and carbon sequestration. It was launched in May 2023 by WWF France.