Research On The Impact Of Environmental Information Disclosure On Financial Performance Of Listed Banks In China

Driven by the strategic objectives of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality,green economy has become a consensus for development.At the same time,green finance is gradually becoming a mainstream trend in the business development of financial institutions in China.As one of the "five pillars" of the green financial system,environmental information disclosure has been highly valued and actively promoted by the People’s Bank of China and other regulatory bodies.As an important representative of financial institutions and an important lever for economic regulation,commercial banks are required to disclose environmental information not only to implement domestic financial regulation,but also to respond to the increasing demand for environmental information from stakeholders.In this context,how to improve the quality of environmental information disclosure while maintaining profits has become an important issue for commercial banks seeking long-term development.Currently,domestic research on environmental information disclosure and financial performance focuses on productive enterprises,and there is less research on environmental information disclosure and financial performance in financial institutions,especially in the banking sector.Therefore,it is important to study the impact of commercial banks’ environmental information disclosure on their financial performance in order to promote financial institutions to actively fulfill their social responsibility and achieve green and sustainable development.The analysis of this paper focuses on the impact of environmental information disclosure on the financial performance of listed banks.The study selects 18 listed banks in China as research objects,constructs a financial performance indicator system for listed banks using factor analysis,and measures the comprehensive index of environmental information disclosure of listed banks using content analysis,and explores the effect of environmental information disclosure on banks’ financial performance using a fixed-effects model,in an attempt to provide a theoretical basis for promoting listed banks to fulfil their environmental responsibilities and improve the quality of environmental information disclosure.The findings show that: firstly,environmental information disclosure has a positive effect on the financial performance of listed banks in both the short and long term,and the findings of this paper still hold after endogeneity and robustness tests;secondly,the implementation of environmental information disclosure has a significant effect on the financial performance of large state-owned banks and joint-stock commercial banks,but not on the financial performance of urban commercial banks;thirdly,when the green reputation of listed banks is low,enhancing the level of environmental information disclosure is more effective in boosting their financial performance.In a word,based on the above theoretical and empirical analyses,this article proposes countermeasures to optimize the environmental information disclosure of commercial banks at three levels: regulators,commercial banks and stakeholders,with a view to promoting the improvement of the green financial system and facilitating the green,lowcarbon and high-quality development of the economy and society.