New standalone company targets consumer demand
for sustainable financial services; nearly 40 percent of US
consumers interested in using climate-linked financial
products
SAN
FRANCISCO, April 23, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- In response
to the growing demand for climate-friendly financial services,
fintech and sustainability industry veteran Tim Newell has reached an agreement with climate
finance company Aspiration Partners, Inc., to spin off Aspiration's
green consumer financial services brand into a new standalone
company. The new company will continue to operate under the
Aspiration brand name, offering sustainable checking, savings, and
investment accounts that empower climate-conscious individuals to
combat climate change through their everyday spending and
saving.
Newell, the former head of the consumer financial products teams
at Tesla and SolarCity, will take on the role of Chief Executive
Officer, having previously led Aspiration's consumer fintech
division as Chief Operating Officer of Aspiration Partners. The
management team and employees of Aspiration's consumer division are
joining as the founding members of the new venture. The new company
plans to invest extensively in the addition of more
climate-friendly products and features.
The spinout of Aspiration's consumer division as an independent
neobank comes at a time when the demand for green banking services
is growing. According to a recent survey by McKinsey, green
financial products are increasingly sought after by consumers
across all income levels and community types, with nearly 40
percent of US consumers reporting interest in enrolling in
climate-friendly financial products.
"There's a large and untapped demand by individuals for
financial products that help rather than harm the planet," said
Tim Newell, CEO, Aspiration. "The
most powerful action the average U.S. family can take in the fight
against climate change is to switch to a financial partner that
does not fund fossil fuel exploration or
production."1
Consumers who bank with a traditional carbon-intensive bank may
be indirectly lending up to 30% of their money to the industries
most responsible for fueling the climate crisis, according to a
recent study by Project Drawdown, a leading independent climate
research organization.
"If every household in the U.S. switched to green banking
products, we'd collectively steer clear of funding the equivalent
of 161 billion gallons of gasoline each year – that's more than the
annual gasoline consumption of the entire United
States,"2 Newell added.
Mission Financial Partners, founded by Newell in 2023, will
serve as the operating company for the Aspiration brand. Similar to
other neobanks, Mission Financial Partners is a financial
technology company, not a bank. Banking services on the Aspiration
platform will be provided by Aspiration's long-time banking
partner, Coastal Community Bank, Member FDIC.
For more insight about the new direction of Aspiration, see
today's blog post from Tim Newell,
CEO of Mission Financial Partners here:
https://blog.aspiration.com/aspirations-next-steps/
About Aspiration
For more than a decade, the Aspiration brand has been at the
forefront of integrating climate action into personal finance. Its
suite of green financial services products empowers individuals to
directly combat climate change through their everyday spending and
saving. As a leader in climate-friendly financial services for
consumers, Aspiration is dedicated to creating a future where
financial decisions contribute to a healthier planet. To learn more
visit aspiration.com.
About Mission Financial Partners
Working at the intersection of personal finance, technology, and
climate action, Mission Financial Partners (MFP) is the operating
company powering the Aspiration family of green financial services.
Founded by fintech and sustainability industry veteran Tim Newell, MFP assumed operation of the
Aspiration consumer brand from Aspiration Partners in February of
2024.
1 The difference between the average carbon intensity
of cash deposited in large, traditional US banks and that of
greener banks is based on the 2023 Project Drawdown report "Saving
[For] the Planet: The Climate Power of Personal Banking." That
carbon intensity savings of 0.183 tCO2e per $1,000 deposited was applied to the average U.S.
family's checking and savings account balance of $62,410 per the U.S. Federal Reserve's "Survey of
Consumer Finances, 1989 - 2022" (2023). This result was then
compared with the results presented in the Project Drawdown report
"Saving [For] the Planet: The Climate Power of Personal
Banking."
2 The same approach as footnote (1) was used to
calculate the total CO2e savings from a U.S. household. That
CO2e savings per household was then multiplied by the number of
households in the U.S. according to the U.S. Census
Bureau (2022). That total CO2e savings across all households
was then converted to gallons of gasoline equivalent using the U.S.
EPA's Greenhouse Gas Equivalencies Calculator (2024). Finally,
that result was compared with the total annual U.S. gasoline
consumption estimated by the U.S. Energy Information Administration
(2023).
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SOURCE Aspiration