Industry heavyweights join The Big Exchange ethical funding platform

The Big Issue has added more names to The Big Exchange partnership –  a blockchain-based mobile-first platform that offers a new approach to banking, saving and investing that promises to shake up the financial world.

Pictet Asset Management, Quilter, Stewart Investors, WHEB Asset Management and Tortoise have joined the cross-industry partnership.

With a rolling launch to the public planned from mid-2019, The Big Exchange also welcomes Aberdeen Standard Investments’ Jill Jackson as managing director, leading the business through its launch phase and beyond.

Jackson said she was “thrilled to be joining The Big Exchange” adding that the proposition will “help millions of people to help each other build a better society as well as being a channel for them to invest for long-term financial returns”.

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Chris Ralph, chief investment officer of St James’ Place Wealth Management joins as chairman of The Big Exchange Investment Committee, leading the committee with a focus on funds that deliver competitive performance, value for money and positive impact to people and planet.

3D Investing and Square Mile Investment Consulting and Research will also join The Big Exchange as partners in delivering the fund selection process. Square Mile will provide analysis of the value and performance of the funds and are providing the framework for the risk rated fund bundles available to investors. Herbert Smith Freehills have also joined to provide advice pro bono, underneath the banner of their global impact investment and social finance practice, HSF Impact.

Nigel Kershaw OBE, Chair of The Big Issue Group and The Big Exchange, says: We are so proud to have world class people and partners on board who are committed to our pioneering mission of creating a financial system that works for everyone in society.

Developed in conjunction with Aberdeen Standard Investments (ASI), Columbia Threadneedle Investments, Alliance Beinstein and Alquity, the revolutionary platform is aiming to make finance more inclusive by allowing anyone with savings or pensions to invest in funds that give them a financial return and make a positive social and environmental impact.

Customers will be able to choose from ready-made bundles or individual funds filtered by risk or by impact focus and track both performance and impact through the app. Funds will be offered at a price which will be amongst the lowest in the market.

The app will let users track how their funds support the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals and allow them to switch their preferred area with just a tap of the screen.

Launching the impact investing proposition is only phase one of an ambitious project. The Big Exchange, driven by the same mission as The Big Issue Group, dismantling poverty through creating opportunity, will make not only impact investing but also ethical financial services available to all through a simple, accessible, mobile-first interface. The ultimate objective is a complete blockchain-based financial ecosystem that works for everyone.