Climate risk and credit risk: The role of corporate social responsibility – a system GMM analysis of MENA banks

The current study explored whether Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) can moderate the association between climate risk and bank credit risk in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. To achieve this objective, we used a sample of 70 conventional banks from 12 MENA countries over the period 2010-2022. This paper employs the System Generalized Method of Moments (SGMM) as an empirical approach to assess the effect of climate risk (CRI) on credit risk, the impact of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) on the credit ratio, and the effect of CSR on the link between climate risk and credit risk. The empirical results show that climate risk increases credit risk, while Corporate Social Responsibility significantly reduces the level of credit risk for MENA banks, measured by the non-performing loans (NPLs) ratio and the loan loss provisions (LLP) to total assets (TA) ratio. Furthermore, findings support evidence that the interaction between climate risk and Corporate Social Responsibility significantly decreases the level of credit risk, a conclusion consistent across the two different measures of credit risk. The findings of this study offer valuable implications for bank managers, regulators, and policymakers seeking to improve credit risk management in the face of climate-related financial risks.