The word „sustainability” evolved from a term used in forestry to a globally known catchphrase. Today, not only the use of resources, but also the generation of energy, investments or even the management of a company can be labelled as “sustainable”. The almost inflationary usage of the term brought uncertainty with it. It became harder to determine whether something really followed the principles of sustainability, or whether it was just used as a marketing slogan. To a certain degree, this could be said about the sustainability reporting of companies as well. Often, they were (and are) seen as non-transparent and incoherent. This situation was (and still is) not strengthening the trust of stakeholders in the published information. It resulted in efforts to find a uniform understanding of the term sustainability and additionally to implement generally applicable rules for the creation of sustainability reports. On a European level, the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS) are the currently valid legislation. The ESRS consist of general as well as topical standards. The latter are divided into three sections – environmental, social and governance. This thesis focuses solely on the reporting on the social standards (ESRS S1 – S4) and how (systemically important) European banks are implementing them. First, there will be an overview of the history of the term “sustainability”. The focus will be on the evolvement of the concept of social sustainability. Then there will be a reference on the currently valid legal frameworks on how to create a sustainability report with a focus on social reporting. To present the current state of research a structured literature review was conducted. The empirical part of this thesis is based on a quantitative analysis of the reporting of European banks. The sample consists of 49 systemically important and non-systemically important banks. The aim was to evaluate how they are implementing the new regulations in their annual reports for the year 2024. Subsequently, also the comparability of the reports can be assessed. The results of the analysis show a heterogeneous picture of the implementation of the social standards (ESRS S1 – S4) in the reporting of (systemically important) European banks. The information presented under ESRS S1 was already quite thoroughly structured. The information published under ESRS S2 – S4 falls short compared to this. This leads to the conclusion that the regulatory requirements are applied in the reporting of (systemically important) European banks, but that there are differences in the degree of elaboration. Thus, the comparability of the information is not always given. Current and future adaptations in the regulatory framework might change this verdict.
- Controlling, Accounting and Financial Management
Soziale Nachhaltigkeit im Fokus – Analyse der Berichterstattungspraxis im europäischen Bankensektor
Christ, S. (Author). 2025
Student thesis: Master's Thesis