NWS Holdings wanted to align its financial interests with its environmental and social responsibility goals. NWS Holdings and Crédit Agricole are both forerunners in promoting sustainability in their respective sectors and have pledged to reach net zero by 2050. The challenge was to collaborate on a solution which responded to these ambitions.

NWS Holdings piloted a novel ESG-linked corporate savings account in Hong Kong provided by Crédit Agricole. The solution is a first-of-its-type product developed in Asia and piloted with this Hong Kong conglomerate.

It is fundamentally different from other green account offerings where the cash collected will be used to refinance green projects. The new product is a cash management solution that enables NWS Holdings to earn a higher yield on its account balances as the company improves its ESG performance. It aims to motivate the company to proactively and continuously realise its ESG goals through recurring monetary incentives in the long term.

When NWS approached Crédit Agricole to open an ESG-linked account, the bank’s sustainable investment bankers assessed and formulated the structure based on NWS’s current progress and future ESG goals. As the company progressively honours its ESG commitments, the savings account rate offered by the bank will positively correlate to reflect the organisations’ ESG progress as a remuneration for their efforts.