Pioneering Green Investment Innovation: A Pathway for Savings‐Driven Sustainability

ABSTRACT The bank's role in sustainable finance drives the banking industry to prioritise sustainable investment practises. Prior studies on sustainable finance focus more on the quantitative approach; however, the underlying mechanism shaping financial behaviour is relatively unexplored. Since there is a limited practise of green climate savings funds in the Malaysian banking industry, this motivates this research to contribute to pioneering a new green investment innovations model for financial institutions. This research aims to integrate green savings into financial technology by innovating a new green banking fund. The proposed Green Climate Savings‐Investment Funds will serve as a substitute for green climate funds that provide attractive rates in savings accounts. This research investigates the willingness of Malaysian banking users to participate voluntarily in Green Climate Savings‐Investment Funds. Drawing from in‐depth semi‐structured interviews with 20 participants, this research is inspired by Grounded Theory inductive thematic contents analysis (TCA) in determining key themes shaping sustainable financial behaviour. Findings highlight that clear transparency, regulatory support, and financial trade‐offs are crucial factors influencing investment decisions. Environmental motivations, though present, are more supportive functions for environmentalists. This research offers practical implications with comprehensive blueprints to the government and financial institutions in designing green banking products that are people‐centred, which are grounded in actual customers' perspectives. This research also contributes to the policy implication through identification of gaps in regulatory, disclosure standards, and consumer protection that hindered public participation in green savings investment. This research extends to the theoretical contribution by developing an inductive conceptual model derived from the public's expectation.