| Abstract |
For a long period, sustainability has been a marginal reason in decision-making process in the financial sector. Although environmental risks were refered to in the financial analysis of financed companies, or financial market has offered some niche products or investment funds in environmentally and socially responsible businesses, banks have not particularly valued those businesses, and, the less willing they were to hamper credit analysis of companies with such requirements. Only recently, driven by the challenges of contemporary development, by the necessity to regain communities' trust, authorities and companies' confidence, banks have started to consider the requirements of sustainability, acting to reconcile the financial objectives with the environmental, social and sustainability issues. Most of these actions, e.g. principles and codes of conduct relevant for credit risk analysis and business decisions, have, however, a voluntary nature. This paper examines the annual reports issued by Romanian commercial banks or by the central bank, in order to investigate the existence of explicit elements of environmental and social sustainability in financing activities, or voluntary compliance to the principles of sustainable development, and thus to understand the actual extent of Romanian banks' involvement in enforcing sustainability issues. |