Open finance innovator Akahu and climate fintech Cogo have announced a partnership that will enable banks to easily turn everyday transaction data into carbon emissions
insights, making it simpler for Kiwis to accurately understand the impact of their spending, and take meaningful action
to reduce their impact on the planet.
“We owe it to future generations to leave them a more sustainable and fairer world and our goal is to help everyone
better understand how their spending affects the climate crisis. To do this in time to save the planet, we need to
affect change at scale. This is why we work with financial institutions - so we can reach their millions of collective
customers and drive change on a global level,” explains Julie Lindenberg, CEO for Cogo’s APAC operations.
Cogo currently works with 16 banks globally, including NatWest (UK), ING Group (Netherlands), Westpac (Australia), Commonwealth Bank (Australia), Suncorp Bank (Australia) and Kiwibank (NZ), to provide carbon emissions data for banking transactions such as spend on electricity and fuel. The Cogo
Personal and Business Carbon Manager solutions calculate carbon footprints for both individuals and businesses, and can
provide personalised recommendations on ways to lower carbon footprints. Businesses can also share their progress, which
can help attract and retain customers.How it works
The accurate ‘categorisation’ of bank transactions is key to the success of Cogo’s technology. Akahu, which provides
open finance infrastructure in New Zealand, offers the ability to categorise bank transaction data at scale. Cogo’s
carbon footprint management solutions then assign an ‘emissions factor’ to each categorised transaction, giving
consumers accurate insight into their carbon footprint. Furthermore, Cogo’s intelligent ‘nudge engine’ helps consumers
make more responsible financial choices by suggesting personalised climate actions.Open banking an impetus for innovation
The partnership is well timed. As a country, New Zealand is developing regulation that will give consumers more choice around who they want to share their financial data with. "Open banking allows
consumers to securely connect their financial data to third party services - including those which help to make
planet-friendly choices. Banks who provide carbon footprinting functionality in-app will avoid seeing their customers go
elsewhere for this type of support,” says Josh Daniell, co-founder at Akahu. "Our purpose is to give people control of
their data. Transaction categorisation, combined with Cogo’s carbon analytics, is a great example of how we can each
leverage our data for positive impact,“ he adds.Are we in ‘catch-up’ mode?
Cogo and Akahu are challenging Kiwi banks to ‘catch up’ in terms of deploying carbon footprinting for their customers.
“Worldwide, knowing the climate impact of your spend has shifted from being ‘good to know’ to something that customers
are starting to demand. We believe giving customers the ability to align their spending with their environmental and
social values will soon become a ‘hygiene factor’,” says Julie.
Using both Akahu and Cogo’s proven technologies, it is now easier than ever before to offer customers planet-friendly
banking innovation. “To succeed tomorrow; banks must design the future today. There is simply no alternative if we’re to
avoid the catastrophic effects of climate change,” concludes Julie.
# # #About Akahu
Akahu maintains deeply functional data integrations with NZ banks and other financial institutions. Those integrations
are bundled into a simple API for developers.
Akahu enables consumers to connect financial accounts to a broad range of products like Dolla, PaySauce, and MBIE’s
Business Connect.About Cogo
Cogo is a carbon footprint management product that helps individuals and businesses to measure, understand and reduce
their impact on the climate. Cogo does this through partnerships with some of the world's largest banks to integrate
leading carbon-tracking functionality into their banking apps.
To find out more information about Cogo, please visit cogo.co.