Socio-Environmental Responsibility Policy in Financial Institutions

Abstract

This research intents to analyze the influence of Socio-Environmental Responsibility Policy of Brazilian’s Central Bank on financial institutions economic performance listed at the Brazilian stock exchange. The data was collected from diversified sources (websites, explanatory notes, reference form and Economatica® data base) from 2012 up to 2017. As sample, 22 financial institutions were considered for data collection and analysis. The results showed that the growth in shareholder’s equity and contingent liabilities have significant differences from the adoption of the Socio-Environmental Responsibility Policy. Considering six items of corporate governance and six items of risk management, no investigated institution presented all these mechanisms requested by Brazilian’s Central Bank. Brazilian’s financial institutions recognized a greater volume of liabilities and expenses after the implementation of such policy, which reduced their net equity. This research shed some lights in socio-environmental policies regarding corporate governance and risk management mechanisms. Objective: to analyze whether the adoption of a socio-environmental responsibility policy influences the performance indicators and the corporate governance and risk management framework of financial institutions listed on the Brazilian stock exchange. Method: Data were collected from the period 2012 to 2017, referring to 22 Brazilian financial institutions, which provided information to operationalize the variables. Results: the results showed that, from the performance indicators investigated, the growth in shareholders' equity and contingent liabilities presented significant differences as of the adoption of the socio-environmental responsibility policy. Twelve items were analyzed, six of which were corporate governance and six of risk management, noting that no investigated institution presented all the mechanisms provided by the Central Bank of Brazil. Contributions: the evidence suggests that Brazilian financial institutions began to recognize a greater volume of liabilities and expenses after the obligation to implement the socio-environmental responsibility policy, reducing their net equity. These results may be due to the improvement of the corporate governance structure and the adequacy of the risk management process.