金融学院知识库

近年来，全球气候环境问题日益严重，可持续发展理念已成为各国广泛共识。ESG作为关注企业环境、社会、公司治理绩效的新兴投资理念和企业评价标准，其发展理念与我国新发展理念的精神内核高度一致，也和“十四五”规划提出的“促进经济高质量发展”“加快发展方式绿色转型”和“努力实现双碳目标”等任务内涵高度契合。在政策及市场的双重推动作用下，商业银行不断加强自身环境、社会和公司治理（Environmental，Social and Governance，ESG）建设，有利于促进绿色普惠金融和自身可持续发展。商业银行作为金融体系中重要的组成部分，是国民经济的重要支撑。随着国际金融环境不断变化和国内金融市场竞争程度不断加深，商业银行面临的财务风险也不断增加，如何有效的管控和减少这些财务风险，降低银行财务风险承担，推动商业银行经济高质量可持续发展具有重要意义。此外，在我国积极推进低碳经济转型、追求经济高品质升级的过程中，以商业银行为代表的金融机构应当积极响应并切实履行ESG责任，深入践行ESG发展观，并不断提升自身风险管理能力，优化并构建全方位的风险防控体系，以加快实现“双碳”战略目标及推动经济高质量发展。对商业银行而言，如何有效地平衡ESG发展理念与降低财务风险承担是当前亟待解决的重要问题。为此，本文重点探究ESG表现对商业银行财务风险承担的具体影响及其内在运作机制，将有助于从多元视角剖析银行业主动履行ESG责任的内在驱动力，并在降低财务风险承担的同时，有力支撑我国经济实现高质量且可持续发展。

本文通过系统梳理ESG表现与商业银行财务风险承担相关文献资料，基于利益相关者理论、赤道原则理论及可持续发展理论对商业银行ESG表现影响财务风险承担的机制渠道进行理论分析。文章基于2009-2022年沪深A股41家上市商业银行面板数据，实证考察ESG表现与商业银行财务风险承担之间的相关关系及其影响机制。研究结果表明：一是基准回归结果发现，商业银行提升ESG表现对财务风险承担具有显著抑制作用，且ESG表现对财务风险承担的抑制作用主要体现在环境保护（E）和公司治理（G）两方面，该研究结论经过一系列稳健性检验和内生性问题处理均成立。二是异质性分析发现，相较于其他商业银行，农村商业银行提升ESG表现对财务风险承担的抑制效果更强；相较于经济发展水平较高的东部地区，总部在中部和西部地区的商业银行加强ESG表现对财务风险承担具有更强的负向效应；不同规模的商业银行提升ESG表现对财务风险承担的抑制作用呈现先下降后上升的U型趋势，即规模越小的商业银行提升ESG表现对财务风险承担的抑制效果越强。三是机制分析表明，绿色信贷和数字普惠金融在ESG表现与商业银行财务风险承担之间发挥了中介效应，董事会结构在商业银行ESG表现与财务风险承担之间发挥了正向调节作用。商业银行可通过积极开展绿色信贷业务，加快普惠金融数字化转型，完善银行内部董事会制度等机制渠道提升ESG表现，进而降低银行财务风险承担。

基于上述研究结论，针对商业银行如何提升ESG表现进而降低财务风险承担，本文提出相关政策建议。一是建立健全商业银行ESG评级体系。借鉴国际通用的ESG评级体系标准，结合我国商业银行特有的发展特点和国情需求，特别是在应对“双碳”目标挑战、推进乡村振兴战略、实施精准扶贫及共同富裕目标等方面，设计并建立起一套符合中国实际的、具备特色的商业银行ESG评级架构，从而提升商业银行ESG信息披露的准确性和完整性。二是完善商业银行ESG风险监管体系。确保商业银行在履行ESG责任和设定发展目标时，能紧密贴合国家经济高质量发展的总体方向和“双碳”战略目标的具体要求，在进行投融资决策分析、信用审批和风险控制过程中，应纳入ESG相关考量因素，并将其作为评估企业健康状况和项目可行性的重要依据。三是激励不同类型商业银行实行差异化ESG建设。深入研究国际主流ESG评级体系和国内外ESG领先银行的良好实践，采取针对性措施补齐ESG管理短板，并结合自身的资产结构和客户类型探索建立具有差异化的内部ESG评价指标体系，用以指导风险管理、投资分析和资产配置。

In recent years, the global climate and environmental problems have become increasingly serious, and the concept of sustainable development has become a broad consensus of all countries. As an emerging investment concept and enterprise evaluation standard focusing on enterprise environmental, social and corporate governance performance, ESG's development concept is highly consistent with the spiritual core of China's new development concept, and is also highly consistent with the task connotation of "promoting high-quality economic development", "accelerating the green transformation of development mode" and "striving to achieve the double carbon goal" proposed in the 14th Five-Year Plan. Under the dual promotion role of policies and markets, commercial banks continue to strengthen their own Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) construction, which is conducive to promoting green inclusive finance and their own sustainable development.As an important part of the financial system, commercial banks are the important support of the national economy. With the ever-changing international financial environment and the deepening competition in the domestic financial market, commercial banks are faced with increasing financial risks. How to effectively control and reduce these financial risks, reduce banks' financial risk bearing, and promote the high-quality and sustainable development of commercial banks is of great significance. In addition, in the process of actively promoting the transformation of low-carbon economy and pursuing high-quality economic upgrading, financial institutions represented by commercial banks should actively respond to and earnestly fulfill their ESG responsibilities, deeply practice the ESG outlook on development, and constantly improve their risk management capabilities, optimize and build a comprehensive risk prevention and control system. To accelerate the realization of the "double carbon" strategic goals and promote high-quality economic development.For commercial banks, how to effectively balance ESG development concept and reduce financial risk is an important issue that needs to be solved. Therefore, this paper focuses on the specific impact of ESG performance on financial risk taking of commercial banks and its internal operating mechanism, which will help analyze the internal driving force of the banking industry to actively fulfill ESG responsibilities from multiple perspectives, and effectively support China's economy to achieve high-quality and sustainable development while reducing financial risk taking.

This paper systematically reviews relevant literature on ESG performance and financial risk taking of commercial banks, and makes a theoretical analysis on the mechanism channels of ESG performance affecting financial risk taking of commercial banks based on stakeholder theory, equator principle theory and sustainable development theory. Based on the panel data of 41 Shanghai and Shenzhen A-share listed commercial banks from 2009 to 2022, this paper empirically examines the correlation between ESG performance and financial risk taking of commercial banks and its influencing mechanism.The research results show that: First, the benchmark regression results show that the improvement of ESG performance of commercial banks has a significant inhibitory effect on financial risk taking, and the inhibitory effect of ESG performance on financial risk taking is mainly reflected in environmental protection (E) and corporate governance (G). This research conclusion is confirmed by a series of robustness tests and endogeneity problems. Second, the heterogeneity analysis found that compared with other commercial banks, the improvement of ESG performance of rural commercial banks has a stronger inhibitory effect on financial risk taking. Compared with the eastern region with higher economic development level, the strengthening ESG performance of commercial banks headquartered in the central and western regions has a stronger negative effect on financial risk taking. The inhibition effect of ESG performance improvement of commercial banks of different scales on financial risk taking shows a U-shaped trend of first decreasing and then increasing, that is, the smaller the commercial banks of different scales, the stronger the inhibition effect of ESG performance improvement on financial risk taking. Thirdly, the mechanism analysis shows that green credit and digital inclusive finance play an intermediary effect between ESG performance and financial risk taking of commercial banks, and the board structure plays a positive moderating role between ESG performance and financial risk taking of commercial banks. Commercial banks can actively carry out green credit business, accelerate the digital transformation of inclusive finance, improve the internal board system of banks and other mechanisms and channels to improve ESG performance, so as to reduce banks' financial risk bearing.

Based on the above research conclusions, this paper puts forward relevant policy suggestions on how commercial banks can improve ESG performance and reduce financial risk taking. First, establish a sound ESG rating system for commercial banks. Drawing on the international ESG rating system standards, combined with the unique development characteristics and national conditions of China's commercial banks, especially in terms of responding to the challenge of "dual carbon" goals, promoting the strategy of rural revitalization, implementing targeted poverty alleviation and common prosperity goals, design and establish a set of ESG rating framework of commercial banks that is in line with China's reality and has characteristics. So as to improve the accuracy and integrity of ESG information disclosure of commercial banks. Second, improve the ESG risk supervision system of commercial banks. To ensure that when performing ESG responsibilities and setting development goals, commercial banks can closely align with the overall direction of high-quality development of the national economy and the specific requirements of the "dual carbon" strategic goal. In the process of investment and financing decision analysis, credit approval and risk control, ESG related considerations should be included, and it should be used as an important basis for evaluating the health of enterprises and project feasibility.Third, encourage different types of commercial banks to implement differentiated ESG construction. In-depth study of the international mainstream ESG rating system and the good practices of ESG leading banks at home and abroad, take targeted measures to make up for the shortcomings of ESG management, and explore the establishment of a differentiated internal ESG evaluation index system in combination with its own asset structure and customer type to guide risk management, investment analysis and asset allocation.