The society has higher demands on both companies and their financiers to adopt more sustainable approaches, of which banks as one of the main financiers of companies can promote this transition. The study examines how banks evaluate sustainability from an environmental, social and governance aspect (ESG) in the credit assessment process for companies, as well as how it affects the granting of credit. The purpose of the study is to describe how banks evaluate sustainability based on the ESG-aspects, and to analyze how companies' sustainability work is important in lending. The theoretical framework consists of previous research in the following five areas: Information asymmetry, ESG, greenwashing, lending and credit assessment. Previous research and theory have been collected to analyze the study's empiricism, where bank officials have been interviewed to inform about banks' sustainability evaluation based on the ESG factors in lending. The study is qualitative with an abductive approach, where the data collection has taken place through semi-structured interviews. The result shows that banks' analyzes within sustainability often include questions that cover certain areas of the ESG factors in order to identify possible risks that may affect companies' repayment, or banks' reputation. However, many banks lack analyzes that specialize in ESG, as well as deeper examination within each sustainability factor. This gives room for development in the area. The results also indicate that sustainability risks can, to some extent, influence banks to refuse credit.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:hh-51064 |
| Date | January 2023 |
| Creators | Alexander, Muayad, Lii, Hurtig Allik |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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