Noooo. You never know if you might want it again and not be allowed in. Mine mostly sits in a drawer doing no harm.
I opened mine last year, I’ve never even added money to the account, just sits dormant.
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This is the way.
Otherwise we’ll wind up with a repeat of the Chase issue in 12 months.
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Exactly, learnt my lesson with that one.
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Absolutely amazing effort by them (Algbra), if that pans out to be true.
Here’s their version
It was only ever going to end with acquisition or closure, I for one am glad it was the former.
What I don’t fully get is that Algbra was built off Modulr as I understand, but their version says they are offering ‘Fintech-as-a-service’ with proprietary tech.
Seems a double hop here for SC, unless I’m missing something? For example, it also notes they were going to go with Starling, which would’ve given them both Infrastructure-as-a-service and Platform-as-a-service and potentially more flexibility.
Happy, but also a little curious as to why. Are starling really that less ethical than Algbra. My guess is no, but it’s a money saving exercise being wrapped up as ‘better for the environment’
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Unless I’ve missed something, there’s no acquisition here. Just investment. Not dissimilar from the M&S/Ocado set up.
Yes.
Probably just me using the term prematurely. Why would a bank invest into a bank and its technology if its long term goal wasn’t acquisition.
But to be clear, right now you’re correct. It’s not an acquisition
It’s not uncommon. BBVA have done it a few times in fintech (they own a good portion of Atom Bank. They only acquired one (Simple) and closed it.
Goldman Sachs are invested in Starling Bank.
Stripe (not exactly a bank) are invested in Monzo.
Investing in a company and subsequently partnering to use their infrastructure is a new paradigm in banking AFAIK though. But that’s why I likened it to Ocado and M&S. that’s a very similar kind of strategic investment partnership.
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I haven’t paid attention to Algebra. How do its ethical credentials compare to Starling? How is it more ethical?
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I think it’s because Starling now has investment from somewhere to Qatar, or maybe the UEA - basically thy have a big wedge of Middle-eastern Oil Money.
On the one hand, you could see that as an ‘ethical’ investment as its to move the country to diverse away from it’s very oil based economy into new Tech stocks.
But, on the other hand, that country’s economy is still based on oil revenue and they don’t show any signs of stopping that anytime soon as they’re only investing in Tech now to give them something after the oil has run out. They’re not going to leave any in the ground though.
Algbra though, has set their USP as being ‘Green and Ethical’ which is why in the app they (attempt) to work out your carbon footprint, and give you easy options to donate to charities.
It does mean though, now that Standard Chartered is investing a substantial amount in Algbra, how ethical are they?
I had an inkling you’d ask! 
It’s more down to what Algbra does say compared to what Starling doesn’t say. The logic being if Starling were doing those things they’d sure as heck be telling us about them very loudly in today’s society. They’d be big selling points.
The most obvious one are the cards. Algbra’s are made from the same Biodegradable material Triodos use for their cards. Starling’s are partly recycled plastic (arguably green washing, because there’s evidence to suggest Virgin plastic is better than removing recycled plastic from circular industries where they can be used again and again). Algbra don’t, by default, thrust a physical card upon you either. They first gesture towards a digital card with the physical card being optional.
Next is lending. Starling have adopted the industry standard approach, which is exploitative. Algbra don’t and won’t do lending. Credit products, just by their nature, are not really ethical products (though it is possible to do credit in more ethical ways to the industry standard: Triodos and Apple Card being good examples).
Then there’s the infrastructure. Algbra’s infrastructure is carbon neutral (maybe even positive now, I know they’re working on it) through a combination of real change, real action, and a little bit of offsetting for that last mile. Starling’s isn’t and don’t plan to be until 2050, and most of what they’re doing to get there seems to be through offsetting initiatives, rather than real action.
Algbra’s carbon-neutral technology architecture and cloud computing probably allows them to offer SC a completely carbon neutral PaaS. Starling can’t for the simple reason their backend isn’t carbon neutral (or they don’t say it is, and you’d expect they would if it was).
But Starling bank are not nearly transparent enough on these issues to effectively assess, so we have to assume that silence speaks contrary to what we’d hope. Bank.green rate them as only OK in contrast to Monzo (who are rated good) and Algbra (who are fossil free certified) but they don’t share the methodology behind those individual scorings.
Algbra also give their customers the tools to manage own personal impact through banking, Starling don’t. Perhaps these kind of tools are part of what was important to SC when choosing a partner.
Algbra return a significant proportion (10%) of profits to charities and community initiatives. Starling don’t.
Algbra are a certified B-corp. Starling isn’t. That might not much mean much in itself. Starling might already meet or exceed the criteria but that’s hard to check and verify, especially with a bank, so the badge goes a long way in this industry especially.
This page really outlines well what Algbra is about and what you’re getting from them on an ethical standpoint:
Starling don’t have anything like it. So either they’re just not doing much in terms of ESG, or they’re just woefully poor at marketing it. But given all the noise they made about having a recycled plastic card, I’m doubtful it’s the latter. But there’s not enough transparency from them in any case.
Starling are not an unethical bank by any means. They’re actually pretty good, particularly when comparing them to the old guys. Algbra just take things to the next level, and it’s not really something Starling appear to be really trying at. It’s more like an afterthought to them. Monzo are even a step above them on these issues (despite their ill-advised Blackrock partnership). Even the green washing of debit cards is a Mastercard initiative, not a Starling one. They were just (one of) the first U.K. banks to adopt it.
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I left Starling due to the investment from Qatar. I don’t wish to be helping, in any way, a polluting state with an appalling human rights record.
I’ll be looking into Standard Chartered but if I recall it’s not good. (A quick look through the Ethical Consumer website confirms this.)
A great shame, but as with Starling (where a personal email to me from Anne Boden saw her wash her hands of any ethical worries about the Qatar deal) money talks.
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Me too. I’m not that familiar with them.
This appears to be their Shoal product they’re partnering for though (also b-corp certified). I’ve joined the waitlist. It looks good.
Background on the investor doesn’t really matter that much to me. If they don’t have a good ethical background, this may be part of an effort to improve it, and that’s always something that will get my support.
We only get to the future we want with the dinosaurs making the same ethical changes necessary as the challengers trying to inspire it.
I don’t mind if a company is starting anew. Banco Sabadell appear to be doing that: not divesting of the bad stuff, but letting it lapse and activity not taking on any new unethical projects.
Standard Chartered seem to still be creating new investments that are questionable, so that’s a worry despite this ethical venture.
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Here we go.
I’m a tiny insignificance in the world of finance, but I can’t keep banking with them knowing this.
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Or, alternatively, you could find articles that don’t play into your confirmation bias
https://www.sc.com/en/about/sustainability/position-statements/prohibited-activities/
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There are more caviats in those statements that in the old Esso price promise.
You can only have confirmation bias of you have a have a prior point of view. I suspected from when they started sponsoring Liverpool years ago but looked into them anew after this deal.
Is my reply enough to reflect your snarkiness?
Erm - that’s not an article, that’s Standard Chartered pinky-swearing that they promise they’re not being naughty…
I’m not saying that they ARE being naughty, I’ve not looked too much into it. And if this is a move by Standard Charter to invest in Algbra and other ethical opportunities and to divest away from any environmentally damaging or ethically dubious businesses then that should be supported.
But, my cynical-brit suspicion is kicking in and this looks like a bit more Greenwashing with them promoting their investment in this platform, but not actually making any major changes to the rest of their business.
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I know, but it’s from this year not 2021. I’m not saying that they will do these things, but people and companies can and do change.
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