Green Certification And Bank Loans

The China Securities Regulatory Commission issued the green credit guidelines in 2012.As a sign,Banks and other financial institutions have formally included the environmental performance of enterprises into the measurement dimension of credit approval.However,the environmental protection information banks can receive is very limited,and there is information asymmetry between enterprises and Banks.To convey a green message to Banks,companies need a widely accepted measure.Published in 1996,ISO14000 series environmental management system certification has become the best choice for enterprises.As a globally recognized environmental performance standard,the environmental management system certification is independently certified by a third party-ISO organization.This means that the bank can confirm the following things: first,the environmental performance of enterprises certified by the environmental management system is more authentic;Second,the environmental performance of enterprises certified by the environmental management system is better than that of other comparable enterprises.Therefore,the main research content of this paper is whether the certification of environmental management system can provide enterprises with financing convenience.Taking A-share listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen from 1998 to 2018 as samples,this paper studies the impact of green certification on total bank loans,long-term bank loans,short-term bank loans and bank borrowing costs.In the further analysis,due to the different characteristics of the company,the environmental protection behavior of the enterprise may be different.Based on the nature of environmental protection,the nature of equity and the financing needs of enterprises,this paper discusses the differences of corporate bank loans.Because the green credit policy may affect the environmental protection behavior of enterprises,this paper takes the listed companies that have passed the green certification as the experimental group,and the companies that have not passed the green certification as the control group,and uses the double difference method(DID)to investigate how the green credit guidelines impact green certification in 2012.By means of empirical examining,this article finally comes to the following conclusions:(1)after the ISO organization passes the environmental management system certification,the company's bank borrowing will significantly increase.(2)After the ISO organization has passed the environmental management system certification,the company's bank borrowing cost will be significantly reduced.(3)In one year,two years,three years and all observation periods before and after passing the environmental management system certification,the impact of green certification on the company's bank loans always exists.(4)In the group test based on the nature of environmental protection,property rights and financing needs of enterprises,the impact of green certification on bank deposits mainly exists in polluting enterprises,private enterprises and enterprises with large financing needs.(5)After the "green credit guidelines" was issued,the role of green certification in bank loans of polluting enterprises was strengthened.The main innovation and contribution of this paper lies in that this paper studies the changes of bank loans from the point of green certification,supplementing the research on the economic consequences of green certification and enriching the research on the influencing factors of debt financing.In addition,the research findings of this paper have certain reference value for various listed companies to improve the linkage of environmental and financial decision-making.