Carbon tracking company Cogo has bagged its first financial services partner in central Europe after completing a startup programme organised by Hungarian bank OTP.
After making its way through the Startup Booster Program, organised by OTP Bank’s innovation hub, Cogo is one of 12 tech startups chosen to help develop future banking solutions and will now run two pilot schemes.
Using Cogo’s carbon footprint technology, one pilot will allow up to 10,000 of the bank’s retail customers to see their carbon footprint, based on their individual spending data. A second pilot will involve Cogo and OTP working together to develop a solution to help SME customers measure and reduce their carbon footprint.
OTP sustainability efforts
OTP has issued a sustainability report since 2015; the first green loan framework approved by the Hungarian supervisory authority was produced by OTP; and the bank has achieved a leading share in the Green Housing Programme in terms of contracted volumes.
Its partnership with Cogo is the next step in OTP’s sustainability journey, offering both retail and business customers better tracking of their carbon emissions, which adds to the bank’s overall appeal for the eco-conscious.
Emma Kisby, EMEA CEO of Cogo, describes the collaboration as an “exciting opportunity for Cogo and OTP to lead a new wave of sustainable innovation in Hungary’s banking sector”.
She says: The use of Cogo’s expertise in carbon tracking for OTP is an important first step in making it easy for everyone to live and spend in a greener way – using their spending power to influence change. As our first financial services partner in central Europe, we are excited to see how our solutions can be adapted and scaled to fit the needs of the Hungarian market.
“Being part of the OTP Startup Booster Program with OTP gives us a wonderful opportunity to see how customers and businesses respond to the integration of carbon tracking data in their banking services. It is my hope that these two pilots can bring better climate understanding to both customers and businesses, starting a green banking revolution for Hungary.”
Picking Cogo
According to OTP, the “instrumentality” of Cogo’s solution proved “indispensable even at first glance”.
Gergő Szathmári, head of innovation management CoE at OTP LAB, comments: “OTP Group sees outstanding value in collaboration with innovative enterprises. Cogo’s cutting-edge technology and solution provides us with extremely valuable data and insights to help us in building a more sustainable future for all.
“Not only does it aid in helping to educate our colleagues and customers about their carbon footprint, but also in understanding and measuring our own carbon emissions and impact on the climate. We hope our collaboration with Cogo sets an example in the Central European market, bringing about the future of green banking.”
Cogo is on track to have more than 3 million banking customers using its carbon management features by the end of 2022. It currently works with seven of the world’s largest banks, including Commbank (Australia), NatWest (UK) and ING (Netherlands) and currently helps over a million customers around the world track their carbon footprint.
Read our CEO interview with Emma Kisby in The Fintech Times newspaper.
Image and article originally from thefintechtimes.com. Read the original article here.