Day +1: Letter to my bank

Hi everyone,

A final post from me with some good news and a few resources I have found helpful in this challenge. 

The good news: I got my new bank card in the mail – check it out!! I still have yet to transfer over most of my transactions – covid has struck our house so has gotten in the way of a lot of things – but that will be April’s challenge.

I have also managed to write a letter to my bank to say ‘so long, farewell.’ It’s copied below – help yourself to it if you are thinking of doing the same…

I started it from a template from this web site: https://www.ethicalconsumer.org/money-finance/template-letter-after-you-have-switched-bank-accounts

And also used some information about my bank from this site – you can search most multinational banks here too: https://www.bankingonclimatechaos.org/#fulldata-panel

And also found a little inspiration from Kim Nicholas’ blog (Her blog is great and her book Under the Sky We Make is fantastic, though if you’re on the Climate Change and Education unit, you will know about this already :)): https://wecanfixit.substack.com/p/dont-be-fossil-fooled-celebrating?s=r

It’s been wonderful keeping up with all your blogs this month and I’ve loved our conversations at the catch ups. Hope we can all meet up sometime soon in the spring too to keep the momentum going! 

Alison 🙂

Account Number: [account number] [insert address]
Sort Code: [sort code]
Dear NatWest

I am writing to inform you that I have closed my account with NatWest and have moved my money to a more responsible bank. I also will not be opening any further bank accounts with you until you improve your approach, commitment and transparency in relation to sustainability and divestment of fossil fuels, and I will be encouraging others to follow my lead. Notably, I am part of a cChange challenge at my workplace, the University of Bristol, and I am sharing this letter with students and colleagues I am doing the challenge with too.

At this time in the world, making personal choices about where and how we invest our money, time and energy requires more careful consideration than ever – and at the heart of those choices should be the impact they have on social, environmental and governance outcomes. These impacts are equal to or arguably more important than financial bottom lines and returns to investors – something that NatWest itself recognizes in copy from your ‘Climate Change Hub’ on the website: ‘We have committed to an ambitious new goal of providing an additional £100 billion of Climate and Sustainable Funding and Financing between 1 July 2021 and the end of 2025.  Not only are we aligning capital in a more sustainable way, but we also know that it makes good business sense.’

I appreciate that your bank is taking steps towards a more sustainable and ESG-oriented approach to banking. However, I have decided to cease banking with you because the timescale of change is too slow and the detailed information about NatWest’s investment in fossil fuels is not accessible or transparent enough for me or presumably most of your everyday banking customers.

My specific complaints and reasons for leaving your bank include:

• Continued significant investment in fossil fuels: According to the Banking on Climate Chaos organization, NatWest has invested $14,843.60 million USD in fossil fuel companies since 2016. While some of this investment is undoubtedly supporting renewable energy infrastructure, investment in certain oil and gas companies has increased in this period.

• Lack of transparency in ongoing coal investment: While there are updated NatWest coal policies from November 2021, which include a plan to exclude investment in new coal production, there are exceptions for companies with credible transition plans and no precision on these exceptions or a full phase out, which is not transparent or clear enough. More precise definition of this must be given to ensure your commitment to phasing out these investments by 2030 is upheld.

• Clear and specific customer-facing information: Detailed information about NatWest’s own commitment to divesting from fossil fuels and making more sustainable investments are hidden amongst web pages mostly devoted to ideas on how individuals can reduce their own carbon footprints. While important, this individualized framing of climate change solutions is also not enough. Institutional change is also needed, and multinational corporations like NatWest can play a leading role in catalysing this change. What customers like me want to see is accessible, specific and clear descriptions of what NatWest 1) is currently investing in; 2) commits to doing to reduce its own carbon emissions and 3) is planning to do in changing its investments so that the bottom line is one where issues of environmental, social and governance concerns take centre stage. 

As it stands, the web pages currently devoted to Banking and Climate Change focus on debit cards, new uniforms and individual customer behaviour – and not the bank’s own investment portfolio. As such, the commitment to sustainability NatWest purports to comes across as a case of ‘greenwashing’ and little else. 

 
I urge you to develop comprehensive and transparent lending and investment policies and customer-facing information so that the commitment you claim to have is apparent and offered up for accountability, and so that it is easy for your customers to see where their money is going and what they are supporting.

Considering the irrefutable evidence that our reliance on fossil fuels is neither environmentally nor economically sustainable, I am choosing to leave your business and invest my daily banking practices and investments with a financial institution that does not fund the fossil fuel industry. Through these investments and services, NatWest facilitates and profits from climate catastrophe, something I no longer choose to do with you.

Yours sincerely,
Alison Oldfield