Beyond banking: smart energy and e-mobility services can add real value for retail and professional banking customers

The energy transition provides opportunities for banks to foster customer loyalty

The global energy transition is no longer a niche trend, it’s a structural shift with massive societal, regulatory, and economic implications. Governments, companies, and individuals are under increasing pressure to reduce carbon emissions, invest in renewable energy, and improve energy efficiency. As the financial engine of the economy, banks are uniquely positioned to facilitate and accelerate this transformation.

At the same time, consumers are becoming more climate-conscious. They expect not only sustainable financial products, but also tangible support in making greener lifestyle choices, from home renovations to electric vehicles. This opens up a new avenue for customer engagement and long-term loyalty, as banks that support energy-smart decisions can position themselves as life partners, not just financial service providers.

The first movers in this space will shape customer expectations, create new data and service touchpoints, and capture a growing share of green capital flows. Waiting too long means missing out on a competitive edge, as tech firms, energy companies, and neo-banks are already starting to move in.

“We see a growing overlap where banks are no longer just funding the energy transition, but becoming active participants, developing platforms for solar sharing, green bonds, or EV infrastructure financing,” says Wim De Swert, founder of irex Consulting. “Our understanding of both the operational energy and e-mobility landscape combined with digital transformation enables us to support financial players in this evolution. For instance, we have recently worked with an innovating e-mobility venture to determine the value of energy flexibility of a targeted home charging customer portfolio. Next up, we will assist in product design and implementation.  The whole goal being to maximize customer value and simplification.”

This type of end-to-end support, from strategy to implementation and with a can-do mentality, is based on a full-accountability vision that defines irex from day one.

Whether it’s assessing risk in the context of energy infrastructure investment or adequately managing it once in operations, data-driven sustainability tracking, integration of energy services into banking apps, or cross-sector innovation labs, irex has an impressive track record of identifying and implementing innovative business cases.

Energy Expertise as a core

It is primarily thanks to important and defining projects at energy players that we have built up this expertise: from strategic consultancy, business or data analysis, project management and operational follow-up to change management, also in the context of mergers, acquisitions, due diligence and integrations. "Crucial to our approach is that we got to know the energy market thoroughly and, as a result, we not only describe, document or facilitate solutions but also effectively implement the new business and process models in co-creation with our customers: via full accountability to operational excellence and concrete business cases as a unique approach to value creation."

This principle is also at the core of the international growth of the ambitious Belgian company, which, with additional headquarters in Paris and Geneva, is now active throughout Europe and leads major transformation programs in the energy transition across multiple industries.

Let’s shape that future together.

We believe in sharing our stories and regularly do so by organizing seminars and conferences. This September, we are planning a ‘Banking Meets Energy’ event at our headquarters, where leading energy experts will discuss hot topics for financial players, followed by a networking cocktail apéro in an exclusive setting.

Let’s explore how finance and energy can connect, together.

If you want to learn more about irex consulting visit: www.irex-consulting.com