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Many people want to do their banking with companies that are helping the UK get to net zero. But it’s not easy to cut through the greenwash and assess how sustainable the different banking brands in the UK really are. So we created the Finder Green Banking Awards to solve that problem.
Watch our video of the awards announcement or continue reading below to reveal our winners!
Green Bank of the Year for 2024
To decide our Green Bank of the Year for 2024 we assessed the UK’s most popular banking brands’ sustainability credentials across 3 key areas:
- Operational emissions. This represents the carbon footprint of the company’s physical presence including any branches it runs, vehicles it owns or offices it uses.
- Net zero targets. This shows us the company’s ambition for making sustainability improvements in the future.
- Position on financing fossil fuels. This helps us understand whether the company is financing major contributors to the climate crisis like the fossil fuel industry.
We used information from publicly available documents. Where possible, we used figures published for each brand. If a brand was part of a group and we couldn’t find all the information we needed for the brand itself, we used information published for the group instead. More details in our methodology.
Based on these 3 categories, Triodos Bank is our Green Bank of the Year for 2024 – for the second year running – as it’s the only banking brand to get excellent scores across the board. It boasts low operational emissions and is leading the pack by aiming for net zero for all emissions including financed emissions by 2035. In terms of financed emissions, it has no exposure to fossil fuels.
Many of you won’t have heard of this small ethically focused bank but you might be surprised that it has over 744,000 customers globally. And in the UK, eligible deposits up to a total of £85,000 are protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme.
There’s also a number of more well-known alternatives that scored highly in the Finder Green Banking Awards. Digital banks with a smaller operational footprint tended to score well with Monzo leading the pack and Starling Bank close on its tail.
If you’re looking for a bank with a high-street presence then your best bets are either TSB, or a bank in the Lloyds Group (Bank of Scotland, Halifax or Lloyds) or Nationwide Building Society. You can see their results in our table of high street banks.
| Bank | Operational emissions | Net zero targets | Position on fossil fuels | Green Bank Score | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Triodos Bank | Excellent | Excellent | Excellent | ★★★★★ | Read our review |
| Monzo | Excellent | Excellent | Good | ★★★★★ | Visit Monzo |
| Starling Bank | Excellent | Average | Excellent | ★★★★★ | Read our review |
Green Digital Bank of the Year 2024
Digital banks have proved popular in the UK by offering user-friendly smartphone-based banking services so we created a Green Digital Bank of the Year category as part of the Finder Green Bank awards.
This was a close run race but our Green Digital Bank of the Year is once again Monzo. Monzo has an ambitious target of getting to net zero by 2030 which puts it well ahead of the 2050 targets that are the norm in the banking sector. It also scored well for its policy to not invest in or lend to fossil fuel businesses and, like other digital banks, its operational emissions score has benefitted from its lack of branches. As we said last year, we’d love to see a clear plan from Monzo setting out how it will reach net zero by 2030, and improved disclosure on its financed emissions.
Starling Bank is close behind when it comes to sustainable digital banking, and is highly commended for the second year running. It has exceptionally low operational emissions and it has a clear policy to not invest in the fossil fuel sector. It is behind the pack when it comes to net zero targets, though. Revolut (which offers accounts but isn’t a bank) fell behind by not having an ambitious net zero target and it lacked clarity on its financed emissions.
It’s worth noting that some digital banks didn’t score so well when it comes to sustainability. These tended to be the digital banks backed by a larger banking group. first direct is part of the HSBC group and Chase Bank is backed by JP Morgan – both of which are major financiers of the fossil fuel industry and their scores reflected that.
| Bank | Operational emissions | Net zero targets | Position on fossil fuels | Finder Green Bank Rating | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monzo | Excellent | Excellent | Good | ★★★★★ | Visit Monzo |
| Starling Bank | Excellent | Average | Excellent | ★★★★★ | Read our review |
| Revolut | Excellent | Poor | Good | ★★★★★ | See account |
| first direct | Good | Average | Poor | ★★★★★ | Visit first direct |
| Chase Bank | Poor | Subpar | Poor | ★★★★★ | See account |
Green High Street Bank of the Year 2024
We know that some people prefer a bank they can visit in person and a longstanding reputation that they can trust. Sustainability may still be a factor for these people and so we created the Green High Street Bank of the Year category for banks with at least 50 branches in the UK.
Our Green High Street Bank of the Year for 2024 is TSB. Several high street bank contenders had similar scores, but TSB nosed ahead in part because of its lack of investment in the fossil fuel sector.
Banks in the Lloyds Banking Group and the building society Nationwide were close behind.
| Bank | Operational emissions | Net zero targets | Position on fossil fuels | Finder Green Bank Rating | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TSB | Good | Average | Excellent | ★★★★★ | Read our review |
| Bank of Scotland | Excellent | Good | Subpar | ★★★★★ | Read our review |
| Halifax | Excellent | Good | Subpar | ★★★★★ | Read our review |
| Lloyds Bank | Excellent | Good | Subpar | ★★★★★ | Read our review |
| Nationwide | Good | Average | Good | ★★★★★ | Read our review |
| NatWest | Good | Average | Average | ★★★★★ | See account |
| Royal Bank of Scotland | Good | Average | Average | ★★★★★ | See account |
| Ulster Bank | Good | Average | Average | ★★★★★ | Read our review |
| Co-operative Bank | Average | Average | Good | ★★★★★ | Read our review |
| Metro Bank | Average | Average | Good | ★★★★★ | Read our review |
| Virgin Money | Average | Good | Average | ★★★★★ | Read our review |
| HSBC | Good | Average | Poor | ★★★★★ | Read our review |
| Barclays | Average | Average | Poor | ★★★★★ | Read our review |
| Santander | Good | Subpar | Poor | ★★★★★ | Visit Santander |
Full green bank scores table
If you want to see how your bank scores against our methodology then please see the full table below.
| Bank | Operational emissions | Net zero targets | Position on fossil fuels | Finder Green Bank Score | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Triodos Bank | Excellent | Excellent | Excellent | ★★★★★ | Read our review |
| Monzo | Excellent | Excellent | Good | ★★★★★ | Visit Monzo |
| Starling Bank | Excellent | Average | Excellent | ★★★★★ | Read our review |
| TSB | Good | Average | Excellent | ★★★★★ | Read our review |
| Bank of Scotland | Excellent | Good | Subpar | ★★★★★ | Read our review |
| Halifax | Excellent | Good | Subpar | ★★★★★ | Read our review |
| Lloyds Bank | Excellent | Good | Subpar | ★★★★★ | Read our review |
| Danske Bank | Good | Average | Average | ★★★★★ | Read our review |
| Nationwide | Good | Average | Good | ★★★★★ | Read our review |
| NatWest | Good | Average | Average | ★★★★★ | See account |
| Royal Bank of Scotland | Good | Average | Average | ★★★★★ | See account |
| Ulster Bank | Good | Average | Average | ★★★★★ | Read our review |
| Co-operative Bank | Average | Average | Good | ★★★★★ | Read our review |
| Metro Bank | Average | Average | Good | ★★★★★ | Read our review |
| Revolut | Excellent | Poor | Good | ★★★★★ | See account |
| Virgin Money | Average | Good | Average | ★★★★★ | Read our review |
| First Direct | Good | Average | Poor | ★★★★★ | Visit first direct |
| HSBC | Good | Average | Poor | ★★★★★ | Read our review |
| Barclays | Average | Average | Poor | ★★★★★ | Read our review |
| Santander | Good | Subpar | Poor | ★★★★★ | Visit Santander |
| Chase Bank | Poor | Subpar | Poor | ★★★★★ | See account |
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