IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/riibaf/v69y2024ics0275531924000436.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Do ESG scores affect financial systemic risk? Evidence from European banks and insurers

Author

Listed:
  • Curcio, Domenico
  • Gianfrancesco, Igor
  • Onorato, Grazia
  • Vioto, Davide

Abstract

We investigate whether and how the systemic risk of European banks and insurers is sensitive to the ESG performance of non financial companies. We adopt a market-based approach and measure the former through the delta conditional Value at Risk of the banking and insurance sectors, whereas the latter is given by a series of market indexes built to account for both the overall ESG commitment and the compliance to each single pillar of the ESG paradigm. By analyzing the period January 2016 – July 2022, we observe that a better performance of green and ESG complaint companies, which turns out in a raise in the level of the respective indexes, reduces systemic risk more than brown and market ones, respectively. The opposite occurs in the case of an increase in their riskiness in terms of Value at Risk and Expected Shortfall. Banks appear to be systemically more vulnerable to green companies’ riskiness; insurers seem to be more exposed to the riskiness of firms active in the oil & gas industry. The breakdown of the overall ESG scores into E, S and G ones allows to observe that the channels through which sustainability performance of non-financial firms affects banks’ and insurers’ systemic risk are different and that further research is required on this regard. Overall, our findings are important in the perspective of the likely increase in the exposure of financial firms towards more ESG compliant companies, providing useful insights for financial institutions and supervisory agencies in the perspective of the integration of ESG factors in the risk management systems of the former and in the prudential practices of the latter.

Suggested Citation

  • Curcio, Domenico & Gianfrancesco, Igor & Onorato, Grazia & Vioto, Davide, 2024. "Do ESG scores affect financial systemic risk? Evidence from European banks and insurers," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:riibaf:v:69:y:2024:i:c:s0275531924000436
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ribaf.2024.102251
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0275531924000436
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.ribaf.2024.102251?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Chen, Naiwei & Huang, Hsiu-Hsi & Lin, Chia-He, 2018. "Equator principles and bank liquidity," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 185-202.
    2. Ballester, Laura & López, Jesúa & Pavía, Jose M., 2023. "European systemic credit risk transmission using Bayesian networks," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    3. George Marian Aevoae & Alin Marius Andrieș & Steven Ongena & Nicu Sprincean, 2023. "ESG and systemic risk," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 55(27), pages 3085-3109, June.
    4. Isabel‐María García‐Sánchez & Emma García‐Meca, 2017. "CSR Engagement and Earnings Quality in Banks. The Moderating Role of Institutional Factors," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 24(2), pages 145-158, March.
    5. Viral V. Acharya & Lasse H. Pedersen & Thomas Philippon & Matthew Richardson, 2017. "Measuring Systemic Risk," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 30(1), pages 2-47.
    6. Gunnar Friede & Timo Busch & Alexander Bassen, 2015. "ESG and financial performance: aggregated evidence from more than 2000 empirical studies," Journal of Sustainable Finance & Investment, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 5(4), pages 210-233, October.
    7. Bevilacqua, Mattia & Duygun, Meryem & Vioto, Davide, 2023. "The impact of COVID-19 related policy interventions on international systemic risk," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    8. Ioannis Oikonomou & Chris Brooks & Stephen Pavelin, 2012. "The Impact of Corporate Social Performance on Financial Risk and Utility: A Longitudinal Analysis," Financial Management, Financial Management Association International, vol. 41(2), pages 483-515, June.
    9. Laeven, Luc & Levine, Ross, 2009. "Bank governance, regulation and risk taking," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(2), pages 259-275, August.
    10. Cerqueti, Roy & Ciciretti, Rocco & Dalò, Ambrogio & Nicolosi, Marco, 2021. "ESG investing: A chance to reduce systemic risk," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 54(C).
    11. Remmer Sassen & Anne-Kathrin Hinze & Inga Hardeck, 2016. "Impact of ESG factors on firm risk in Europe," Journal of Business Economics, Springer, vol. 86(8), pages 867-904, November.
    12. Mustafa Hakan Eratalay & Ariana Paola Cortés Ángel, 2022. "The Impact of ESG Ratings on the Systemic Risk of European Blue-Chip Firms," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 15(4), pages 1-41, March.
    13. Iulia Lupu & Gheorghe Hurduzeu & Radu Lupu, 2022. "How Is the ESG Reflected in European Financial Stability?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(16), pages 1-14, August.
    14. Bouslah, Kais & Kryzanowski, Lawrence & M’Zali, Bouchra, 2013. "The impact of the dimensions of social performance on firm risk," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(4), pages 1258-1273.
    15. Rui Albuquerque & Yrjö Koskinen & Chendi Zhang, 2019. "Corporate Social Responsibility and Firm Risk: Theory and Empirical Evidence," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 65(10), pages 4451-4469, October.
    16. Boubaker, Sabri & Cellier, Alexis & Manita, Riadh & Saeed, Asif, 2020. "Does corporate social responsibility reduce financial distress risk?," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 835-851.
    17. Härdle, Wolfgang K. & Song, Song, 2010. "Confidence Bands In Quantile Regression," Econometric Theory, Cambridge University Press, vol. 26(4), pages 1180-1200, August.
    18. Meng-Wen Wu & Chung-Hua Shen & Ting-Hsuan Chen, 2017. "Application of multi-level matching between financial performance and corporate social responsibility in the banking industry," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 49(1), pages 29-63, July.
    19. Bert Scholtens & Sophie van’t Klooster, 2019. "Sustainability and bank risk," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 5(1), pages 1-8, December.
    20. Naeem, Muhammad Abubakr & Karim, Sitara & Tiwari, Aviral Kumar, 2022. "Quantifying systemic risk in US industries using neural network quantile regression," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 61(C).
    21. Koenker, Roger W & Bassett, Gilbert, Jr, 1978. "Regression Quantiles," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 46(1), pages 33-50, January.
    22. Christian Brownlees & Robert F. Engle, 2017. "SRISK: A Conditional Capital Shortfall Measure of Systemic Risk," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 30(1), pages 48-79.
    23. Kim, Yongtae & Li, Haidan & Li, Siqi, 2014. "Corporate social responsibility and stock price crash risk," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 1-13.
    24. Francesco Gangi & Antonio Meles & Eugenio D'Angelo & Lucia Michela Daniele, 2019. "Sustainable development and corporate governance in the financial system: Are environmentally friendly banks less risky?," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 26(3), pages 529-547, May.
    25. López-Espinosa, Germán & Rubia, Antonio & Valderrama, Laura & Antón, Miguel, 2013. "Good for one, bad for all: Determinants of individual versus systemic risk," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 9(3), pages 287-299.
    26. Lööf, Hans & Sahamkhadam, Maziar & Stephan, Andreas, 2022. "Is Corporate Social Responsibility investing a free lunch? The relationship between ESG, tail risk, and upside potential of stocks before and during the COVID-19 crisis," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 46(PB).
    27. Stefano Dell'Atti & Annarita Trotta & Antonia Patrizia Iannuzzi & Federica Demaria, 2017. "Corporate Social Responsibility Engagement as a Determinant of Bank Reputation: An Empirical Analysis," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 24(6), pages 589-605, November.
    28. Finger, Maya & Gavious, Ilanit & Manos, Ronny, 2018. "Environmental risk management and financial performance in the banking industry: A cross-country comparison," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 240-261.
    29. Caterina Di Tommaso & John Thornton, 2020. "Do ESG scores effect bank risk taking and value? Evidence from European banks," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 27(5), pages 2286-2298, September.
    30. Alogoskoufis, Spyros & Dunz, Nepomuk & Emambakhsh, Tina & Hennig, Tristan & Kaijser, Michiel & Kouratzoglou, Charalampos & Muñoz, Manuel A. & Parisi, Laura & Salleo, Carmelo, 2021. "ECB’s economy-wide climate stress test," Occasional Paper Series 281, European Central Bank.
    31. Shen, Chung-Hua & Wu, Meng-Wen & Chen, Ting-Hsuan & Fang, Hao, 2016. "To engage or not to engage in corporate social responsibility: Empirical evidence from global banking sector," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 207-225.
    32. Cornett, Marcia Millon & Erhemjamts, Otgontsetseg & Tehranian, Hassan, 2016. "Greed or good deeds: An examination of the relation between corporate social responsibility and the financial performance of U.S. commercial banks around the financial crisis," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 137-159.
    33. Gros, Daniel & Lane, Philip R. & Langfield, Sam & Matikainen, Sini & Pagano, Marco & Schoenmaker, Dirk & Suarez, Javier, 2016. "Too late, too sudden: Transition to a low-carbon economy and systemic risk," Report of the Advisory Scientific Committee 6, European Systemic Risk Board.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Florian Neitzert & Matthias Petras, 2022. "Corporate social responsibility and bank risk," Journal of Business Economics, Springer, vol. 92(3), pages 397-428, April.
    2. Gehrig, Thomas & Iannino, Maria Chiara & Unger, Stephan, 2024. "Social responsibility and bank resiliency," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    3. Afef Bouattour & Maha Kalai & Kamel Helali, 2024. "The non-linear relationship between ESG performance and bank stability in the digital era: new evidence from a regime-switching approach," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-17, December.
    4. Francesco Gangi & Antonio Meles & Eugenio D'Angelo & Lucia Michela Daniele, 2019. "Sustainable development and corporate governance in the financial system: Are environmentally friendly banks less risky?," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 26(3), pages 529-547, May.
    5. Meles, Antonio & Salerno, Dario & Sampagnaro, Gabriele & Verdoliva, Vincenzo & Zhang, Jianing, 2023. "The influence of green innovation on default risk: Evidence from Europe," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 692-710.
    6. Fiordelisi, Franco & Ricci, Ornella & Santilli, Gianluca, 2023. "Environmental engagement and stock price crash risk: Evidence from the European banking industry," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    7. Conte, Danilo & Bussoli, Candida & Hemmings, Danial, 2024. "Responsible risk-taking and the CSP-financial performance relation in the banking sector: A mediation analysis," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    8. Citterio, Alberto, 2024. "Bank failure prediction models: Review and outlook," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).
    9. Galletta, Simona & Mazzù, Sebastiano & Naciti, Valeria, 2022. "A bibliometric analysis of ESG performance in the banking industry: From the current status to future directions," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    10. Bert Scholtens & Sophie van’t Klooster, 2019. "Sustainability and bank risk," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 5(1), pages 1-8, December.
    11. Karoline Bax & Giovanni Bonaccolto & Sandra Paterlini, 2023. "Do lower environmental, social, and governance (ESG) rated companies have higher systemic impact? Empirical evidence from Europe and the United States," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(3), pages 1406-1420, May.
    12. Birindelli, Giuliana & Dell’Atti, Stefano & Di Tommaso, Caterina & Iannuzzi, Antonia Patrizia & Pacelli, Vincenzo, 2024. "The impact of banks’ climate engagement on systemic risk. Does committing a little or a lot make a difference?," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 70(PB).
    13. Mustafa Hakan Eratalay & Ariana Paola Cortés Ángel, 2022. "The Impact of ESG Ratings on the Systemic Risk of European Blue-Chip Firms," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 15(4), pages 1-41, March.
    14. Paola Brighi & Antonio Carlo Francesco Della Bina & Valeria Venturelli, 2022. "Do ESG Investments Mitigate ESG Controversies? Evidence From International Data," Centro Studi di Banca e Finanza (CEFIN) (Center for Studies in Banking and Finance) 0084, Universita di Modena e Reggio Emilia, Dipartimento di Economia "Marco Biagi".
    15. Saif-Alyousfi, Abdulazeez Y.H. & Saha, Asish & Alshammari, Turki Rashed, 2023. "Bank diversification and ESG activities: A global perspective," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 47(3).
    16. Lei Ruan & Heng Liu, 2021. "Environmental, Social, Governance Activities and Firm Performance: Evidence from China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(2), pages 1-16, January.
    17. Champagne, Claudia & Coggins, Frank & Sodjahin, Amos, 2022. "Can extra-financial ratings serve as an indicator of ESG risk?," Global Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 54(C).
    18. Danisman, Gamze Ozturk & Tarazi, Amine, 2024. "ESG activity and bank lending during financial crises," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    19. Curcio, Domenico & Gianfrancesco, Igor & Vioto, Davide, 2023. "Climate change and financial systemic risk: Evidence from US banks and insurers," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    20. Ling, Aifan & Li, Jinlong & Zhang, Yugui, 2023. "Can firms with higher ESG ratings bear higher bank systemic tail risk spillover?—Evidence from Chinese A-share market," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Systemic risk; Climate risk; Financial stability; Sustainable finance;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G15 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - International Financial Markets
    • G18 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Government Policy and Regulation
    • G20 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - General
    • Q54 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Climate; Natural Disasters and their Management; Global Warming

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:riibaf:v:69:y:2024:i:c:s0275531924000436. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/ribaf .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.