The term Savings describes accounts in which you deposit money and earn a set rate of interest, such as our Cash ISA or Saver accounts. Triodos Bank only lends deposited money to organisations that are making a positive environmental, social or cultural impact, and we publish details of every organisation we lend to on our website.

The term Investments refers to accounts in which you can buy assets such as shares in stock market listed companies. With all investments your capital is at risk and you may not get back the full amount you invested and investments should be considered for the long term i.e. 5 years or more. Payment of income or interest is variable and not guaranteed.

Like with our Savings accounts, all Investments made via Triodos Bank are used to support businesses that are making a positive environmental, social or cultural impact and we publish details of all the investments we make. For example, through the Triodos Impact Investment Funds you can invest in a diverse portfolio of stock market listed shares and bonds. We publish the entire portfolio of both funds on our website:

• Triodos Global Equities Fund
  
• Triodos Pioneer Impact Fund
• Triodos Sterling Bond Impact Fund

Sustainable finance requires choices; very deliberate choices about what Triodos Bank finances and invests in, and what really contributes to a sustainable future. This process also requires clear boundaries for what Triodos Bank can finance. Triodos Bank deems some investments, products, processes and activities incompatible with a sustainable future. Therefore, Triodos Bank has adopted minimum standards that clearly explain the products, processes and activities that Triodos Bank does not want to be involved in.

Zero tolerance and maximum thresholds
Some of the numerous resources and products that companies use, manufacture or sell are not aligned with Triodos Bank’s positive impact ambitions.
For these products, Triodos Bank distinguishes two approaches. For involvement with genuinely unsustainable products, Triodos Bank applies a zero-tolerance policy (e.g. for weapons and nuclear energy). Deriving revenue from the production of such products leads to exclusion from financing or investment. For other products, maximum revenue thresholds are in place to minimise exposure (e.g. for tobacco products). A company or activity that exceeds the set threshold demonstrates a strategic choice for involvement and is therefore excluded from financing or investment.

For further details please read our Minimum Standards.

There are different levels of risk associated with each fund offered. You must read all supporting documentation for each fund to make sure you can make an informed investment decision.

The Triodos SICAV I Key Investor Information Document shows a risk scale between 1 to 7, with 1 as the lowest risk and 7 as the higher risk. The Triodos Sterling Bond Impact fund has a risk rating of 3/7. Bond funds are generally considered to be lower risk and therefore offer the potential for lower returns than equity funds, such as the Triodos Global Equities Impact Fund and Triodos Pioneer Impact Fund that have risk ratings of 5/7 and 6/7 respectively.

If you are unsure as to the appropriateness or suitability of investing in the funds and/or with Triodos Bank, you should contact an Independent Financial Advisor. The value of investments and the income derived from them may go down as well as up and you may not get back the amount originally invested.

No, there is no interest paid on our Cash Accounts. This is because these accounts are meant to make it easy for you to make investments, they aren’t designed as a long-term home for savings.

If you do not yet know what you would like to do with the money you hold in a Cash Account, you may want to consider other options, for example you may wish to transfer funds from a Stocks and Share ISA Cash Account to a Cash ISA such as the Triodos Online Cash ISA or move funds from an Impact Investment Cash Account to a savings account such as the Triodos Online Saver or Triodos Online Saver Plus.

Alternatively, you can keep a cash balance in your Cash Account from which you can make regular monthly investments.  For more information see How to set up a regular monthly investment?

Yes, once you add money into a Stocks and Shares ISA Cash Account linked to a Triodos Stocks and Shares ISA, this will count as an ISA subscription for the current tax year.

Whilst adding money to the Cash Account will count as an ISA subscription, dividends and sale proceeds paid into the Cash Account will not count as subscriptions.

Please note that the Triodos Stocks and Shares ISA is not a flexible ISA, and therefore cash withdrawn from a linked Cash Account cannot be replaced in the same tax year without the replacement counting towards your ISA allowance for the current tax year.

You can transfer some or all of an existing ISA to a Triodos Stocks and Shares ISA and invest in the Triodos Impact Investment Funds - without losing your tax-free ISA status. See How to transfer an existing ISA to a Triodos Stocks and Shares ISA and follow the transfer process to ensure your ISA transfer occurs without affecting your ISA allowance. Do not move funds out of an ISA yourself, because your money will lose this ISA status.

Yes, you can. You may find it helpful to rename your accounts to make identifying and distinguishing them a bit easier. To do this, go into ‘Account settings’, select the account you would like to change the name of, then click on ‘Account name’. Once here you can amend the account name.

Moving money between ISA cash accounts by bank transfer will impact your ISA allowance. By bank transfer, we mean making a payment using the account number and sort code.

For example, if you paid money from a Cash ISA account into a Stocks and Shares ISA cash account yourself, the money leaving the Cash ISA would lose its ISA status. The money would then use a portion of your ISA allowance when it’s paid into the Stocks and Shares ISA. 

When you withdraw money from an ISA in this way, you can’t reinstate it and would permanently lose that portion of your ISA allowance. If you choose to re-add money that you’ve withdrawn from an ISA, you’ll use up a portion of an ISA allowance, unless you have a flexible ISA.

If you want to move money between your Cash ISA and Stocks and Shares ISA without it affecting your ISA allowance, you will need to arrange an ISA transfer by completing an ISA transfer form (see below).

Triodos Investment Management is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Triodos Bank, and have been active in the sustainable investment sector for over 25 years. Triodos Investment Management manage investments ranging from sustainable energy infrastructure to microfinance institutions, and individuals in the UK can invest in the Triodos Global Equities Impact Fund, Triodos Pioneer Impact Fund and Triodos Sterling Bond Impact fund.

You can sell shares in the Triodos Impact Investment Funds through the Triodos Mobile Banking App or Internet Banking. See our guide on How to sell your impact investment shares.

We will take your Annual Service Charge in one of the following two ways:

1. Firstly, we will check your linked Cash Account on the first Calendar Day of a new quarter to see if there is a sufficient cash balance to cover the charge. If the cash is available, it will be earmarked and debited the same day, unless it’s a weekend, in which case the money will be debited on the next weekday.
2. If there is an insufficient balance when we carry out this check, we will instruct to sell shares in your investments to cover the whole amount (there is no charge to pay your Annual Service Charge in this way).

Please note that if you have a Stocks and Shares ISA and have fully subscribed for the tax year, then you will not be able to add money to your linked Cash Account and your only option for payment of the charge will be for us to sell shares to cover the charge.

For more information, please also see What are the charges for investing? 

You can use your ISA allowance by 'wrapping' your existing impact investment funds in our Stocks and Shares ISA. Within the Stocks and Shares ISA you benefit from no further tax on income and no capital gains tax. The benefits of an ISA depend on your individual circumstances and tax rules may change in the future.

To wrap your existing holding in an ISA it must be sold and repurchased. The process of making this double transaction is also known as a 'Bed and ISA'. Follow the 3 steps below to do this: 

1. Open a Stocks and Shares ISA or ensure your existing ISA is declared
   If you would like to wrap your holding in our Stocks and Shares ISA and don’t currently have a Stocks and Shares ISA, you will need to apply for an account through the Triodos Mobile Banking App or Internet Banking.  Every Stocks and Shares ISA or Impact Investment Account has a linked Cash Account which is used to hold the cash that you will use to make new investments, including buying shares for a Bed and ISA.  For more information see What is a Cash Account and why do I need one?
   
   If you already have a Stocks and Shares ISA and have not paid into your ISA since 5 April 2022 you will need to declare your eligibility before transferring money into your Cash Account. For more information see Do I need to declare my ISA and how do I do this in Internet Banking?
   
   
2. Sell your Impact Investment Account shares
   You will need give us your instruction to sell your Impact Investment Account shares through the Mobile App or Internet Banking (see How to sell your impact investment shares). 
   
   
3. Transfer the money into your Stocks and Shares ISA Cash Account
   Once you have received the money from the proceeds of the sale in your Impact Investment Cash Account, you can then transfer it into your Stocks and Shares ISA Cash Account using the Mobile App or Internet Banking (see How do I add money to my Stocks and Shares ISA or Impact Investment Cash Account?).
   
   Money added into a Stocks and Shares ISA Cash Account will count as an ISA subscription for the current tax year. You can then take your time to decide what investments you would like to make, safe in the knowledge that your money has already counted as a subscription for the current tax year. For more information see How to buy shares or top up your impact investment.

Please note, when selling your holding outside of the ISA wrapper you will realise a capital gain or loss. Most people have a capital gains allowance of £6,000 (for the 2023/24 tax year), any gain below this amount means there is no charge on any profit you made. If you happen to make a capital loss this can be used to offset future capital gains.

Company engagement papers published on our website and our periodic newsletters will provide further information on how we continue to engage and influence companies that are invested in the Triodos Impact Funds on your behalf. 

The gain and/or loss shown in the Mobile App and Internet Banking shows the current value of your investment less the value of any purchases at the time that they were bought.

The gain/loss shown is calculated from when we moved to our current investments administration system on 25 November 2022. Any gain/loss from investments held prior to that date will not be included in the calculation.

As purchases and sales are instructed on a forward value basis (that is, we don’t know the Price Per Share to be used until the day after the instruction is completed), only allowing up to 90% of your holding to be sold will allow for price fluctuations. If you instead ask us to sell your whole holding, this will be an instruction for the entire amount in number of shares rather than by value.

After a buy or sell trade is confirmed, you will be able to download a contract note in the Mobile App and/or Internet Banking. Once in your Stocks and Shares ISA or Impact Investment Account, go to ‘Transactions’ and underneath ‘Transactions’ click on ‘Completed’ which will show you the details of all your purchases and sales including:

• £ amount bought or sold
• Number of shares bought or sold
• Price per share at the time of the transaction
• A download button through which you can download a PDF contract note

You can also see ‘Pending’ purchases or sales under ‘Transactions’.

The Annual Service Charge is 0.4%. It is calculated pro-rata quarterly based on the average value of your holding across the previous quarter. You can therefore look at your total holding and use this percentage to calculate the approximate charge. For example, if your average holding value for the quarter was £10,000, your Annual Service Charge will be £10 for that quarter.

If you don’t have sufficient cash in your Cash Account to cover your upcoming Annual Service Charge when we check your available balance on the first Calendar Day of a new quarter, we will arrange to sell some of your shares to cover the charge (there is no charge to pay your Annual Service Charge in this way).

For more information see How do you decide which shares to sell from my holdings to cover my Annual Service Charge?

The Triodos Impact Investment Funds are sub-funds of Triodos SICAV I, a “Société d’Investissement à Capital Variable” established in Luxembourg. Triodos SICAV I has a Passport into the UK, enabling UK distribution. Triodos SICAV I, including its sub-funds, is governed by the law of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg.

The funds being offered in the UK are:

Triodos Global Equities Impact Fund
Triodos Global Equities Impact Fund offers investors the possibility to invest in equities issued by larger listed companies worldwide delivering superior social and environmental performance within their sector as well as a strong financial performance.

Triodos Pioneer Impact Fund
Triodos Pioneer Impact Fund provides investors the opportunity to invest in equities issued by innovative and pioneering small and medium-sized listed companies worldwide that focus on the sustainable themes of climate protection, clean planet, healthy living, and or corporate social responsibility.

Triodos Sterling Bond Impact Fund
The Sterling Bond Impact Fund aims to generate positive impact and a stable income from a portfolio of bonds such as corporate, green and social bonds, and bonds issued by the UK government known as gilts.

If you don’t have sufficient cash in your Cash Account to cover your upcoming Annual Service Charge when we carry out the check on the first Calendar Day of a new quarter, we will arrange to sell some of your shares to cover the charge (there is no charge to pay your Annual Service Charge in this way). 

We will calculate your Annual Service Charge based on your average holding across the previous quarter. If you have holdings in more than one fund or share class, we will sell shares from each proportionate to the value you have in each fund/share class based on your holding on the first Calendar Day of the new quarter. For example, if your average holding for the previous quarter is £12,500 with £7,500 in the Triodos Global Equity Impact Fund (3/5ths of the average holding) and £2,500 in the Triodos Pioneer Impact Fund (2/5ths of the average holding) on the first Calendar Day of the new quarter, then your Annual Service Charge will be £12.50 in total with £7.50 (3/5ths) deducted from your Triodos Global Equity Impact Fund holding and £5.00 (2/5ths) deducted from your Triodos Pioneer Impact Fund holding.

The Triodos Global Equities Impact and Pioneer Impact funds are quoted in sterling. When you purchase or sell, your sterling is converted into euros or back from euros into sterling. Your total return is therefore subject to the euro-sterling exchange rate.  Further currency risk arises as the funds may invest in euro, dollar and other currency denominated securities.

The Triodos Sterling Bond Impact Fund has a base currency of sterling and your total return is not subject to the euro-sterling exchange rate.