Title: Benchmarking the sustainable banking performance of Indian commercial banks

Authors: Raveena Gaba; Deergha Sharma

Addresses: The NorthCap University, Sector 23-A, Gurugram, Haryana-122017, India ' The NorthCap University, Sector 23-A, Gurugram, Haryana-122017, India

Abstract: The objective of the study is to suggest a Global Reporting Initiative (GRI)-G4-based hybrid framework for Indian commercial banks to determine their sustainability disclosure practices. Twenty-eight Indian commercial banks were investigated based on their contribution to environmental, economic, social, and governance indices of sustainable practices selected from the GRI-G4 sustainability reporting guidelines. Content analysis through Python software was employed to extract data for a period of three years ranging from 2018 to 2021 exploring the ways Indian banks are embracing sustainable practices. The study has utilised the Mann-Whitney U test to estimate the disparate functioning of commercial banks on the sustainability dimensions. The research findings indicated that private banks outperform public banks on the adopted framework. The ranking results show 'Yes Bank' as the top performer among all selected commercial banks setting a benchmark for other lagging banks to enhance their sustainable performance.

Keywords: green banking; sustainability reporting; social performance; environmental performance; governance.

DOI: 10.1504/IJPMB.2024.135756

International Journal of Process Management and Benchmarking, 2024 Vol.16 No.1, pp.60 - 80

Received: 28 Jul 2022
Accepted: 02 Sep 2022
Published online: 04 Jan 2024 *