In June 2020, the EU Taxonomy Regulation came into force, creating a standardised classification system for sustainable economic activities. This is intended to provide investors and customers with information on the environmentally sustainable economic activities of companies. For financial companies such as banks, this results in new and challenging disclosure obligations. From 2021, credit institutions will have to disclose in their reports the extent to which their investments and financing comply with the EU taxonomy. They must publish both qualitative and quantitative information on their environmentally sustainable business activities. Banks rely on data and information from their counterparties such as companies and private customers. This paper deals with the EU taxonomy with a particular focus on its application to banks. The EU taxonomy is explained in general on the basis of academic literature. The rules of the EU taxonomy and the disclosure requirements are then explained. The requirements for the classification of environmentally sustainable business activities are also described in detail. In addition, the key figures to be published by the banks, in particular the Green Asset Ratio (GAR), are discussed. An analysis of the EU taxonomy reporting of selected banks for the years 2021 to 2023 compared the disclosure of information and key figures and highlighted differences. The analysis takes the form of a qualitative content analysis and a quantitative ratio analysis. Simplified disclosure requirements apply to financial companies for the 2021 and 2022 reports. They only need to declare the taxonomy eligibility of their economic activities. From 2023, banks will be obliged to publish the taxonomy aligibility of their business activities and the Green Asset Ratio. The green asset ratio is the ratio of taxonomy aligned assets to total assets. When calculating the GAR, it should be noted that certain risk positions, such as exposures to governments or central banks, are not included. The analysis of EU taxonomy reporting shows that the banks report in varying degrees of detail. Some banks publish extensive information on the EU taxonomy and explain the requirements for environmentally sustainable economic activity. In addition, most banks describe the published key figures. When analysing the key figures, it can be seen that the banks have different values for the performance indicators. The proportion of non-taxonomy-eligible economic activities varies between 2,5 % and 88 % in 2021 for the 14 banks analysed. The proportion of risk exposures to non-NFRD companies varies considerably between the banks and amounts to 47 % in 2022. However, the average value of the individual key figures remains relatively constant over both years. For 2023, the Austrian and German credit institutions indicate environmentally sustainable total assets of between 194 million euros and 8.721 million euros. The reasons for the differences are the banks' business models, the calculation method and the interpretation of the regulations.
EU-Taxonomie im Bankensektor: Eine Analyse der Berichterstattung ausgewählter Kreditinstitute
Dikany, M. (Author). 2024
Student thesis: Bachelor's Thesis