Document summary
Banks are implicated in all kinds of business activities with all kinds of sustainability impacts – though often indirectly. They have the power to help shape the way business is done and economies work, including the consideration of environmental and social impacts. But how do banks deal with the special responsibility accruing from this role? This is the central question that underlies the key issue of Responsible Finance. The authors have defined it as an umbrella term for all practices and strategies employed by banks involving the integration of environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria and metrics into financial lending and investment decision making. Responsible Finance is all about the integration of ESG into the core business of banks, which makes it particularly interesting from an investor perspective.
This report focuses on one out of five key ESG issues for the global banking sector we’re covering in Sustainalytics' other recent sector report “
Banks: Like a Phoenix from the Ashes?”.