Assessment of Green Banking Performance

Abstract

Internal and external pressures are pushing the financial system towards an increasingly environmentally responsible orientation. The damaging practices of green-washing necessitate the search for new ways of monitoring. The question then arises, how can one measure the actual degree of greenness of a banking industry? This study aims to create a new methodology framework to measure green performance in the banking industry using multi-criteria methods. We offer a theoretical contribution. First, a set of criteria was identified at the theoretical level. Second, the criteria were evaluated by practitioners and aggregated using the ‘TOPSIS’ method. This index may constitute a basis for ranking banks. The results showed that the most important factors to be considered when evaluating the performance of green banking are the greenness of the customers, the development of innovations leading to a green economy, the availability of green financial products and services, and the promotion of green education. These results lead to the conclusion that both banks and clients should become “greener” and utilize more green innovations and financial products/services.