Sustainable Savings With a Decent Interest Rate: What’s Real?

You want your savings to grow a little — but you don’t want those dollars funding new oil fields or coal plants. That’s a completely reasonable position. The problem is that once you start looking at the market, you’ll quickly discover that the overlap between genuinely competitive interest rates and independently verified sustainable banking is frustratingly narrow. This article breaks down what’s actually available, what trade-offs you’re making, and where the blind spots are.

The Short Answer (If You Just Want the Bottom Line)

Among all banks currently offering 2.8% or more on a flexible savings account, there is exactly one that has been independently assessed and rated positively for its sustainability practices: bunq. Every other high-yield option is either completely unvetted or part of a banking group that actively finances fossil fuel industries at scale. If sustainability is a firm requirement for you, you’ll ultimately end up at Triodos or ASN Bank — and you’ll give up roughly two percentage points of interest per year to get there. That’s the core trade-off this article explores.

Why “Sustainable Savings” Is So Hard to Measure

A savings account isn’t like an investment fund. Your money doesn’t get placed into a curated selection of stocks or bonds — it flows into the bank’s overall balance sheet, where it gets used to fund mortgages, business loans, and corporate financing. As a customer, you have no way to trace exactly what your deposit is being used for. That level of transparency simply doesn’t exist.

The most practical approach is to look at the bank’s policies: which sectors does it exclude, what standards does it apply to corporate lending, and how open is it about all of this? Fortunately, in the Netherlands there’s one serious independent benchmark that helps answer these questions.

The Eerlijke Bankwijzer: The Benchmark That Matters

The Eerlijke Bankwijzer (Fair Bank Guide) is a collaborative initiative involving Amnesty International, Milieudefensie, Oxfam Novib, PAX, and World Animal Protection. Research is conducted by independent firm Profundo. It evaluates the investment and lending policies of eight Dutch banking groups across themes including climate, biodiversity, human rights, weapons, animal welfare, gender equality, and tax practices. You can view the full policy assessments directly as a PDF.

The 20th update, published in March 2026, paints a fairly grim picture. The average score across assessed banks dropped from roughly a 7 to a 6, with five of the eight banking groups declining — partly because the methodology was tightened with stricter fossil fuel exclusion criteria. Rabobank came in last place.

Two banks actually improved: Triodos and bunq. Triodos topped the rankings with an average score of 9.4, up from 8.2 in the previous edition. bunq climbed to a 7.6. On the climate and biodiversity themes specifically — the categories where most banks lost ground — bunq, ASN Bank, and Triodos all perform well.

One important caveat: the Eerlijke Bankwijzer measures what banks commit to on paper, not what they actually do in practice. Policy and execution don’t always align.

Current Savings Rates and Sustainability Scores (August 2026)

Below is an overview of the banks currently offering the highest rates on flexible savings accounts, along with what happens after any promotional period ends and how they score on sustainability. Rates change frequently — always check current rate listings and the bank’s own website for the latest figures. The Consumentenbond and Geld.nl are also useful comparison resources.

Bank	Rate	What Happens Next	Deposit Guarantee	Sustainability
Yapi Kredi	3.30%	Promotional rate, 3 months, then drops to 1.80%	Dutch	Unknown
Revolut	3.10%	Depends on subscription tier	Lithuanian	Unknown
bunq	3.01%	Fixed until Jan 1, 2027, then approx. 1.51%	Dutch	7.6 — Good
Santander Consumer Bank	3.01%	Promotional rate	Spanish	Weak
GarantiBank	3.00%	6 months, then standard rate	Dutch	Moderate (BBVA)
DHB Bank	3.00%	6 months, then 1.85%	Dutch	Unknown
Trade Republic	3.00%	Standard rate, up to €50,000	German / Irish	Weak (partner banks)
Openbank	2.80%	Promotional rate	Spanish	Weak
Triodos	approx. 1%	Standard rate	Dutch	9.4 — Top rated
ASN Bank	approx. 1.2%	Standard rate	Dutch	Good

bunq: Where High Yield and Real Sustainability Actually Meet

bunq is currently the only bank in the higher interest rate tier that holds an independently verified — and improving — sustainability score. That makes it genuinely unusual in this comparison. It also operates under a Dutch banking license, which means your savings are covered by the Dutch deposit guarantee scheme (Depositogarantiestelsel), protecting up to €100,000 per account holder through De Nederlandsche Bank.

The current rate of 3.01% is locked in until January 1, 2027. After that, it’s expected to fall back to around 1.51%. It’s worth putting that date in your calendar so you can reassess your options in time rather than quietly lose out on a better rate elsewhere.

A Closer Look at the Other Options

Santander Consumer Bank and Openbank: Fossil Financing at Scale

Both brands operate under Spain’s Banco Santander. According to the Banking on Climate Chaos 2026 report, Santander ranks 21st among the world’s largest fossil fuel financiers. It gets worse: the bank has walked back its climate commitments and doubled its fossil fuel debt financing in 2025 compared to 2021. It also quietly removed its only oil-related customer exclusion policy in July 2025 — one of the last concrete climate restrictions it had in place. For anyone who takes sustainability seriously, there’s little reason to start here.

GarantiBank: Better Than Santander, But Still Not Green

Garanti BBVA International N.V. is nearly 86% owned by Spain’s BBVA, which appears at position 31 in the same Banking on Climate Chaos rankings. That’s a step better than Santander, but it’s no leader on environmental policy. On the positive side, the Dutch subsidiary is fully regulated by Dutch authorities and participates in the Dutch deposit guarantee scheme.

Trade Republic: Your Money Lives at Other Banks

Trade Republic works differently from a traditional savings account. Your cash is held across a network of partner banks, including Deutsche Bank, Citibank Europe, HSBC, J.P. Morgan, and SEB. These are some of the most prominent names in global fossil fuel finance — JPMorgan Chase, for instance, once again ranks as the world’s single largest fossil fuel financier in the most recent report. In practice, your savings end up on the balance sheets of institutions deeply invested in fossil energy infrastructure.

Yapi Kredi and DHB Bank: A Complete Unknown

Both are fully licensed Dutch banks under DNB supervision, with Turkish parent companies (Yapı Kredi and — for a 30% stake — Halkbank, respectively). There are no independent sustainability assessments of either institution. That doesn’t automatically mean they perform poorly, but it does mean there’s simply no way to know. For anyone who considers transparency a baseline requirement, that alone is enough reason to look elsewhere.

Revolut: Also Unassessed — and Rate Depends on Your Plan

Revolut Bank UAB holds a Lithuanian banking license and falls under the Lithuanian deposit guarantee scheme. No independent research exists on its lending or financing policies. There’s an additional wrinkle worth noting: the savings rate Revolut offers is tied to which subscription plan you’re on. Factor in those monthly costs before comparing the net return against other banks.

What Does Choosing Sustainably Actually Cost You?

Let’s put some real numbers on it. Say you have €30,000 in savings. Here’s how the annual return compares:

• Triodos (approx. 1%): around €300 per year
• bunq (3.01%): around €903 per year
• Difference: roughly €600 per year

For many savers, bunq represents a defensible middle ground — a solid sustainability score of 7.6, Dutch deposit protection, and a rate that at least keeps pace with inflation. If you weigh sustainability as a principle more heavily than returns, Triodos or ASN Bank are the right choice, and that’s a completely valid call. Both hold strong independent ratings, and the peace of mind that comes with banking at an institution that genuinely doesn’t finance fossil fuels is worth something real.

Splitting Your Savings: A Practical Middle Path

You don’t necessarily have to pick one side or the other. A common approach is to keep a portion of your savings at a sustainability-first bank — ideally wherever you hold your current account — and park the amount you won’t need in the near term at the bank offering the best rate. There’s a practical bonus to this strategy as well: deposit guarantees apply per bank, so spreading your savings across multiple institutions can increase your total protected amount if you have more than €100,000 saved.

Things to Keep a Close Eye On

• Promotional rates roll back quietly. Almost every rate above 3% is temporary. Banks rarely send you a reminder when the promotional period ends. Set a calendar alert so you’re not caught off guard.
• Know which country’s guarantee scheme applies. The protected amount — €100,000 — is consistent across the EU, but the institution administering the guarantee differs by country. If a bank runs into trouble, you’re dependent on that country’s system to pay out.
• Account for subscription costs. With Revolut, the interest rate you receive depends on your plan tier. Deduct the monthly subscription fee before comparing the effective yield against competitors.
• Policy scores aren’t the same as practice. The Eerlijke Bankwijzer publishes both policy assessments and practice reviews. The two don’t always tell the same story — a bank can score well on paper while falling short in its actual lending behavior.

Sources

• Eerlijke Geldwijzer — Banks score lower on sustainability policy (March 2026)
• Eerlijke Bankwijzer — Policy Assessment Dutch Banks, 20th Update (PDF, Profundo)
• Eerlijke Bankwijzer — How does your bank score?
• Triodos Bank — Press release Eerlijke Bankwijzer 2026
• IEX Impact — Dutch banks less sustainable
• Banking on Climate Chaos 2026 — Fossil Fuel Finance Report
• Rainforest Action Network — BOCC 2026 Press Release
• Stand.earth — Banking on Climate Chaos 2026 Analysis
• Bank.Green — Santander Climate Score
• Trade Republic — How is my money protected?
• Actuele Rentestanden — Highest savings rates
• Consumentenbond — Highest savings rates
• Geld.nl — Current savings rates overview

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This article is intended for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. Savings rates and promotional terms can change week to week — always verify the current rates and conditions directly with the bank in question. Last updated: August 2026.