As of the 15h of February, Ipsos has published its semi-annual "Personal banking service quality" report for banks operating in both Great Britain and Northern Ireland. But Ipsos doesn’t differentiate between fossil-fuel funding offenders and green banks, so we’ve decided to do it for them. After all, what better customer service can a bank offer than to not burn down the planet? 

Customer service does generally include other things of course, and we’ll cover that too. We’re going to highlight banks with sustainability practices we can appreciate. 

The Rankings 

Before we jump into the rest of the article, it’s a good idea to check out the categories and rankings. In this report, Ipsos have ranked the largest 16 personal current account providers in Great Britain and 11 in Northern Ireland under separate categories. 

People surveyed were asked how likely they were to recommend their bank or building society to others in each of the following four categories: 

• Overall service quality. 
• Online and mobile banking services. 
• Overdraft services.  
• Services in branches.  

If you’re interested in banking and comparing banks across the industry, it’s a good report to read. It only provides a limited overview of topics, but aside from environmental concerns, they’re probably the most important ones. In this article, we’ve looked at the Bank.Green rating of Ipsos’s top-ranked banks to see which ones are truly great. Let’s get started! 

Our ‘Great’ bank list 

Monzo

Monzo is a new online bank, licensed in 2017, that’s rocketed right to the top of Ipsos’s list for.... pretty much everything. Reaching the top of the list for "overall service quality" in both NI and Great Britain is impressive enough, but they’ve even managed to reach the dizzy heights of "Great" in our sustainability tracker.

Before we get completely carried away, let’s have a look at some of their features:

• Completely online, digital bank.
• Easy saving with multiple vaults or ‘Pots’ for your money.
• Loans, overdrafts,and international usage with no exchange rate fees.

More importantly than any of that, Monzo states it won't invest any of your hard-earned cash into the fossil-fuel industry. They’ve committed to a net-zero future, as well as accessibility and transparency when it comes to their carbon footprint. If you’ve ever wanted to quiz a bank about their sustainability practices, you can even reach them through a specifically created email address.

For all these reasons and more, Monzo is one of our top picks for sustainable banking in 2024.

Here’s their Ipsos rankings:

• Overall service quality: 1st in GB / 1st in NI
• Online and mobile banking services: 2nd in GB / 3rd in NI
• Overdraft services: 1st in GB / 4th in NI
• Branch service: N/A (doesn’t have any)

Nationwide 

Nationwide Building Society has claimed a spot in our famed ‘Great’ banks category, while claiming the number 4 spot on the overall service quality list in Great Britain and number 3 in Northern Ireland. They’re also the highest rated bank on the Ipsos list still to offer in-branch services to their customers. Here’s a quick look at some of their services: 

• Loans, mortgages, and investment opportunities for customers. 
• Online banking and services. 
• In-person branches and services across both the UK and NI. 

Not only is it a great bank for customers, it’s also a great bank for sustainability. We can guarantee it doesn’t invest in the fossil fuel industry. It’s committed to a net-zero future as well as removing and reducing carbon emissions from its own business.   

It even releases an annual sustainability report, which you can read here.  

As one of the oldest favourites here at Bank.Green, we’re happy to recommend Nationwide Bank as a "green and great" option to safeguard your money. 

Here’s a full list of their scores from the both report: 

• Overall service quality: 4th in GB / 3rd in NI. 
• Online and mobile banking services: 7th in GB / 8th in NI. 
• Overdraft services: 11th in GB / 7th in NI. 
• Branch service: 1st in GB (tie with Metro Bank) / 1st in NI. 

Metro Bank 

Metro Bank made the top ten list of the UK ‘Most loved places to work’ in 2022 and 2023 along with collecting a pretty hefty number of other awards throughout the years. Metro offers everything you’d expect to see from a community bank, with customer-friendly opening hours and lots of visibility across their products and commitments. Here’s a quick round-up of their services: 

• Later closing times and open over the weekend. 
• Current accounts, saving accounts, and online banking. 
• Mortgages, loans, safe deposit boxes, and even pet insurance. 

Moving on to the actually important stuff, Metro Bank has lots of quick, easy and accessible information about sustainability on their website. They’ve made net-zero commitments and operate entirely through renewable energy sources. They’re involved with planting mangrove trees in Madagascar and as part of their ‘Ethics’ code, they won’t be using your money to fund coal mines, deforestation or military manufacturing. It’s a nice ethics code. 
 
But Metro hasn’t opened branches in NI at all, leaving us on this side of the Irish Sea confused and a little hurt. 

Here’s their report rankings: 

• Overall service quality: 5th  
• Online and mobile banking services: 10th  
• Overdraft services: 4th  
• Branch service: 1st (tied with Nationwide) 

The Good, the Bad, the Ugly 

Knowing whether or not your bank contributes to the climate crisis is something we passionately believe in. You should be able to trust your bank to keep your money safe and to do the right thing when it comes to climate. If your bank hasn’t made it onto our list, or rates badly on our website, we’d strongly encourage you to consider moving and making the most of greener and socially responsible banks. 

It might seem like a small step, but it’s worth doing if it takes your money away from the fossil-fuel industry and helps make the world a better place. Don’t let your own money be used against you.