With Shoal, you can get started with as little as one pound. Just top up your account, and select the term you’d like to save for.

Once you create a Savings Pot, your money is referenced against Standard Chartered Bank’s Sustainable Finance portfolio. This portfolio is made up of loans and other financial products provided to companies or projects supporting sustainable development around the world. 90% of these projects are located in Asia, Middle East and Africa where the need for private financing is greatest - and also where the impact is greatest.

As a global bank with over 170 years in operation, our banking partner Standard Chartered provides financial services to a wide range of companies and projects, including to companies and projects that are engaged in sustainable, transition-finance and conventional activities.

The money Shoal places with Standard Chartered, reflecting the collective Savings Pots of Shoal’s customers, is allocated a distinct sustainable product code. This code enables the money placed by Shoal to be referenced exclusively against Standard Chartered’s sustainable finance portfolio, and helps ensure that Standard Chartered never accepts more sustainable deposits than it has sustainable projects / loans to finance. So whilst Standard Chartered’s wider liquidity pool will be used to finance conventional banking activities as well as transition finance and sustainable finance, the funds in the distinct sustainable product code are only ever referenced against sustainable projects.

The activities you’ll help to support by saving through Shoal include the construction of hospitals, extending electrified rail networks, creating energy efficient buildings and rolling out renewable energy projects such as offshore wind farms and solar power plants. Some projects generate and distribute clean water where it is needed the most. Other projects create new opportunities for low-income entrepreneurs by providing access to microloans.

Every pound you save through Shoal becomes a powerful force that helps support sustainable development around the world. To help show you the difference you’re making with your savings, we developed a first of its kind ‘impact’ calculator. Developed as part of our commitment to transparency, the Impact Calculator is based on Standard Chartered’s audited Sustainable Finance Impact report (which you can read here) and shows the average CO2 avoided and clean water generated per dollar of financing.

We’re proud to say that with just £100 you’ll not only earn a competitive rate on your savings, you’ll also help to support the avoidance of around 21 kg of CO2 and provide access to around 90 litres of clean water.

No. With Shoal your savings are used to help support a diverse portfolio of sustainable loans and projects.

Developed as part of our commitment to transparency, the Impact Calculator is based on Standard Chartered’s audited Sustainable Finance Impact report (which you can read here) and shows the average CO2 avoided and clean water generated per dollar of financing.

We multiply the average CO2 avoided and clean water generated by the value of your deposit to find your impact statistics. Because the Sustainable Finance Impact report is prepared on an annual basis, we make sure to only account for the average impact corresponding to the length of your term. The data we use to calculate your impact statistics is based on the Sustainable Finance portfolio’s performance in the prior year.

Your impact statistics will grow over time as you create sustainable Savings Pots, and include the impact for all newly created Savings Pots as well as any matured Savings Pots.  

We think it’s important to show you what the impact statistics actually mean in context. So for example, we may show you what CO2 avoidance means in terms of iphones charged or flights. We’re using the US Environmental Protection Agency CO2 calculator for CO2 equivalence statistics. Access it here.

Your savings are assigned a unique product code and referenced to Standard Chartered’s Sustainable Finance portfolio. This portfolio is composed of loans and other financial products provided to companies or projects that meet the criteria set out in its Green and Sustainable Product Framework. ​

The Green and Sustainable Framework was created in collaboration with Sustainalytics. On a yearly basis, Sustainalytics carries out a review of whether the Sustainable Assets included in the Sustainable Finance Impact report meet the requirements set out in the Green and Sustainable Product Framework. EY also carries out limited assurance on the Sustainable Finance Assets and Sustainable Finance Liabilities.

Standard Chartered’s policy frameworks, its Green and Sustainable Product Framework and position statements clearly define how Standard Chartered manages ESG risk, and control which activities Standard Chartered will and will not finance.

You can read Standard Chartered’s position statements here.

Standard Chartered is a leading international bank with a 170 year history in the UK, focused on helping people and companies prosper across Europe, the Americas, Asia, Africa and the Middle East.

Standard Chartered has an important role to play in supporting its clients, sectors and markets to deliver net zero, but to do so in a manner that supports livelihoods and promotes sustainable economic growth. Standard Chartered currently provides financial services to clients, sectors and markets that contribute to greenhouse gas emissions, including activity in carbon-intensive sectors. However they’re committed to net zero in their own operations by 2025 and in their financed emissions by 2050 and in increasing the proportion of sustainable and transition finance they offer.

As part of its overall activities, Standard Chartered has a sustainable finance portfolio composed of sustainable loans and projects that meet the criteria set out in its Green and Sustainable Product Framework. Financial services provided to such companies and projects generate income for Standard Chartered as well as help support sustainable development outcomes, depending on the project.

The impact of these loans and other financial services are summarised and made publicly available in Standard Chartered’s Sustainable Finance Impact Report. The information contained in that report is reviewed by an independent ESG risk advisory firm called Sustainalytics.

Shoal will only place funds with Standard Chartered for the purposes of being referenced against sustainable investments that are part of the bank’s sustainable asset portfolio.