Goldman Offers 0.05% Extra in ESG Corporate Checking Account

Goldman Sachs Group Inc., in an effort to win more deposits and build out its transaction banking segment, is offering companies slightly higher interest on their accounts if they meet environmental or other socially responsible goals.

The bank opened its first such account last month, for Xylem Inc., a company that supplies equipment and technology to water utilities. It’s seeing interest from other clients, with five to 10 more transactions in the works, according to Mark Smith, Goldman Sachs’s head of global liquidity and transaction banking.

Xylem’s financial incentive to meet its goals is modest: Goldman Sachs is ...