A new digital banking service called Ando launched on Monday promising customers that 100 percent of the bank's investments will support the environment.
"When you deposit your paycheck into your Ando account, we guarantee that the money will only be invested in green initiatives that reduce emissions and improve the environment," JP McNeill, CEO of Ando, told Cheddar.
McNeill said he came up with the idea in the process of trying to reduce his own carbon footprint and realizing that his bank deposits were working against his goals, given that most banks are invested in the fossil fuel industry.
"There are millions of people today, including myself, who are looking at ways in which we can reduce our carbon footprint as well as help the environment," he said. "Unfortunately, many options are out of reach for the average person, or they're very difficult to implement, but banking is within reach for most Americans."
This isn't the first time McNeill has attempted to bring environmental principles into the banking and investment space. He was formerly the chief executive of Renovate America, which provided financing for solar and other home energy-saving improvements.
McNeill, however, left the company in 2017, because he saw no clear regulation on the federal level. The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2020 after facing multiple lawsuits from customers and tightened credit requirements that made its business model difficult.
McNeill said Ando will offer a test case in how banks can help divert customers' money away from fossil fuels.
"The way the banking sector works is that for every dollar that we deposit in our account, the bank can originate one dollar worth of loans," McNeill said. "So the idea is that by better design we can direct and reorient our money to fund green initiatives that reduce emissions and improve the environment."
About 780,000 pressure washers sold at retailers like Home Depot are being recalled across the U.S. and Canada, due to a projectile hazard that has resulted in fractures and other injuries among some consumers.
President Donald Trump has fired one of two Democratic members of the U.S. Surface Transportation Board to break a 2-2 tie ahead of the board considering the largest railroad merger ever proposed.
Ford is recalling more than 355,000 of its pickup trucks across the U.S. because of an instrument panel display failure that’s resulted in critical information, like warning lights and vehicle speed, not showing up on the dashboard.
The Rev. Al Sharpton is set to lead a protest march on Wall Street to urge corporate America to resist the Trump administration’s campaign to roll back diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. The New York civil rights leader will join clergy, labor and community leaders Thursday in a demonstration through Manhattan’s Financial District that’s timed with the anniversary of the Civil Rights-era March on Washington in 1963. Sharpton called DEI the “civil rights fight of our generation." He and other Black leaders have called for boycotting American retailers that scaled backed policies and programs aimed at bolstering diversity and reducing discrimination in their ranks.
