London, Tuesday 30 June 2020: PensionBee has today announced it is one of the founding pledge partners of Make My Money Matter, a new national campaign calling for the UK to have ‘pensions with intention’.
PensionBee, a leading online pension provider, has become a Make My Money Matter pledge partner, joining the campaign spearheaded by film maker, Sustainable Development Goal advocate and co-founder of Comic Relief, Richard Curtis. The movement calls for UK pensions to build a better world.
PensionBee shares Make My Money Matter’s vision to live in a world where everyone can look forward to a happy retirement, including financial freedom, good health - rooted in a prospering environment - and social inclusion. In order to achieve this, the pensions industry has a big collective task ahead, using the combined power of many trillions in pension investments to tackle the huge challenges society faces.
In early 2020 PensionBee surveyed its customers about their investment views and found that many no longer wanted their money invested in oil and tobacco companies (1). In response PensionBee is launching the UK’s first mainstream fossil fuel free fund in partnership with Legal & General. The plan offers every pension saver in the UK a practical way to completely exclude oil, gas and tobacco companies from their pension.
In addition to its regular plans, PensionBee also offers customers the Future World Fund, which invests in companies transitioning to a low carbon economy and a Shariah Plan, which only invests in Shariah-compliant companies.
Priyal Kanabar, Customer Insights Manager at PensionBee, commented: “People are becoming more conscious about how their pensions are invested, and our research shows that most want to balance making money with creating positive social outcomes. We are proud to be the first pension provider to work with Make My Money Matter, as the campaign empowers millions of UK workers to demand that their pension providers move their money into companies that align with their values. The voices of savers are already driving meaningful progress, with our engaged customers leading us to develop the UK’s first mainstream fossil fuel free fund.”
Clare Reilly, Head of Corporate Development commented: “Collectively our pension investments have the power and potential to radically change the world. But as we’ve seen for many years, calls to remove certain industries, like oil, have not been reflected in what’s on offer to savers. Not only are we very pleased to launch the UK’s first mainstream fossil fuel free fund this year, we are also proud to be part of a campaign like MMMM that is calling for every pension saver in the UK to have that same level of control over where their money is invested. Our call to action now is to the rest of the pension industry to join this important campaign and offer pensions with intention to all UK savers.”
