Work

Sustainable small business lending

Year: 2024

Type: article

Abstract: Banks are the main external financing source for small businesses. This constitutes a potentially significant lever to support global sustainability efforts. The paper establishes this concept as sustainable small business lending. Surveying German banks, I show that banks are in the process of implementing sustainable small business lending. They put more emphasis on financial value related sustainability risks than on transformational aspects related to societal values. Sustainable relationship lending has some relevance in creating soft information on sustainability, although respective hard information is more relevant to banks. Banks and policymakers can use the findings to strengthen sustainable small business lending.

Source: Sustainable Futures

DOI: 10.1016/j.sftr.2024.100292

Author: Sebastian Rink

Institution: Frankfurt School of Finance & Management

Language: English

Topic: Sustainable Finance and Green Bonds

Subfield: Finance

Field: Economics, Econometrics and Finance

Domain: Social Sciences

SDGs: Decent work and economic growth, Responsible consumption and production

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $1,880