Sustainable banking: conceptualization and implementation practice

Abstract

The article explores the actively developing and little-investigated phenomenon of a modern financial system termed “sustainable banking.” The relevance of the study is due to a number of circumstances: first, awareness of the growing importance of sustainable (responsible) financing as key driver of sustainable development for solving large-scale economic, social, and environmental problems; second, the lack of a generally accepted holistic system of views on sustainable banking, the content of relevant concepts, which indicates that its conceptualization is incomplete; third, scholarly and public interest in foreign banks’ modern practices of sustainable development, which opens up broad opportunities for Russian banks to use their experience. This article determines the direction of sustainable banking, reveals the content of its conceptualization, and identifies features of the formation of this phenomenon in Russia. By sustainable banking, the authors understand processes of theoretical comprehension and generalization of the practice of banks that declare a commitment to ideas of sustainable development, leading to the formation of ideas about this phenomenon and formation of a relevant system of concepts. The article describes current approaches to sustainable banking; shows the most important international initiatives for incorporating ideas and principles of sustainable development into activities of financial institutions, as well as practical steps taken by various financial institutions (development banks, traditional banks and so-called nontraditional banks, known as sustainable banks) for integrating principles of sustainable development into strategies and bank operations. The authors conclude that this integration and the development of sustainable banks allows us to speak of the formation of a special business model of responsible business conduct — a sustainable banking model. A separate section is devoted to an analysis of the situation in the area in question and identification of measures to enhance the role of banks in ensuring responsible financing in Russia.