IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/zbw/bofrdp/72023.html

Climate-related disclosure commitment of the lenders, credit rationing, and borrower environmental performance

Author

Listed:
  • Hasan, Iftekhar
  • Lee, Haekwon
  • Qiu, Buhui
  • Saunders, Anthony

Abstract

Using lenders becoming members of the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) as a plausible exogeneous shock, we examine whether and how lenders' commitment to transparent climate-related disclosures affects borrower firms' environmental performance. We find that client firms of TCFD-member lenders, relative to control firms, significantly improve their environmental performance after the TCFD launch. The effects are stronger for polluting firms. Moreover, TCFD-member lenders influence their borrowers' environmental performance via charging higher loan spread and reducing the number and amount of new loans issued to polluting firms. Finally, polluting clients of TCFD-member lenders experience tightened financial constraints subsequently.

Suggested Citation

  • Hasan, Iftekhar & Lee, Haekwon & Qiu, Buhui & Saunders, Anthony, 2023. "Climate-related disclosure commitment of the lenders, credit rationing, and borrower environmental performance," Bank of Finland Research Discussion Papers 7/2023, Bank of Finland.
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:bofrdp:72023
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/271050/1/1843515792.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Diamond, Douglas W, 1991. "Monitoring and Reputation: The Choice between Bank Loans and Directly Placed Debt," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 99(4), pages 689-721, August.
    2. James, Christopher, 1987. "Some evidence on the uniqueness of bank loans," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 19(2), pages 217-235, December.
    3. Arito Ono & Iichiro Uesugi, 2009. "Role of Collateral and Personal Guarantees in Relationship Lending: Evidence from Japan's SME Loan Market," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 41(5), pages 935-960, August.
    4. Diamond, Douglas W, 1989. "Reputation Acquisition in Debt Markets," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 97(4), pages 828-862, August.
    5. Choy, Stacey & Jiang, Shushu & Liao, Scott & Wang, Emma, 2024. "Public environmental enforcement and private lender monitoring: Evidence from environmental covenants," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 77(2).
    6. Geraldo Cerqueiro & Steven Ongena & Kasper Roszbach, 2016. "Collateralization, Bank Loan Rates, and Monitoring," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 71(3), pages 1295-1322, June.
    7. repec:bla:scandj:v:95:y:1993:i:1:p:77-95 is not listed on IDEAS
    8. Brown, Jeffrey R. & Huang, Jiekun, 2020. "All the president's friends: Political access and firm value," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 138(2), pages 415-431.
    9. Kathleen Herbohn & Ru Gao & Peter Clarkson, 2019. "Evidence on Whether Banks Consider Carbon Risk in Their Lending Decisions," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 158(1), pages 155-175, August.
    10. Sadi Ozelge & Anthony Saunders, 2012. "The Role of Lending Banks in Forced CEO Turnovers," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 44(4), pages 631-659, June.
    11. Nadia Ameli & Sumit Kothari & Michael Grubb, 2021. "Misplaced expectations from climate disclosure initiatives," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 11(11), pages 917-924, November.
    12. Cornaggia, Jess & Mao, Yifei & Tian, Xuan & Wolfe, Brian, 2015. "Does banking competition affect innovation?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 115(1), pages 189-209.
    13. Hong, Harrison & Kostovetsky, Leonard, 2012. "Red and blue investing: Values and finance," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 103(1), pages 1-19.
    14. Ivashina, Victoria, 2009. "Asymmetric information effects on loan spreads," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(2), pages 300-319, May.
    15. Ivashina, Victoria & Scharfstein, David, 2010. "Bank lending during the financial crisis of 2008," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 97(3), pages 319-338, September.
    16. repec:bla:jfinan:v:59:y:2004:i:4:p:1777-1804 is not listed on IDEAS
    17. Michael R. Roberts & Amir Sufi, 2009. "Control Rights and Capital Structure: An Empirical Investigation," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 64(4), pages 1657-1695, August.
    18. Karl V. Lins & Henri Servaes & Ane Tamayo, 2017. "Social Capital, Trust, and Firm Performance: The Value of Corporate Social Responsibility during the Financial Crisis," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 72(4), pages 1785-1824, August.
    19. Toni M. Whited & Guojun Wu, 2006. "Financial Constraints Risk," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 19(2), pages 531-559.
    20. Shourun Guo & Edith S. Hotchkiss & Weihong Song, 2011. "Do Buyouts (Still) Create Value?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 66(2), pages 479-517, April.
    21. Brent W. Ambrose & James Conklin & Jiro Yoshida, 2016. "Credit Rationing, Income Exaggeration, and Adverse Selection in the Mortgage Market," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 71(6), pages 2637-2686, December.
    22. Nirosha Hewa Wellalage & Vijay Kumar, 2021. "Environmental performance and bank lending: Evidence from unlisted firms," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(7), pages 3309-3329, November.
    23. Fahlenbrach, Rüdiger & Stulz, René M., 2009. "Managerial ownership dynamics and firm value," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(3), pages 342-361, June.
    24. Lynn Linghuan Wang, 2023. "Transmission Effects of ESG Disclosure Regulations Through Bank Lending Networks," Journal of Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 61(3), pages 935-978, June.
    25. Lamont, Owen & Polk, Christopher & Saa-Requejo, Jesus, 2001. "Financial Constraints and Stock Returns," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 14(2), pages 529-554.
    26. Gustafson, Matthew T. & Ivanov, Ivan T. & Meisenzahl, Ralf R., 2021. "Bank monitoring: Evidence from syndicated loans," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 139(2), pages 452-477.
    27. Greg Nini & David C. Smith & Amir Sufi, 2012. "Creditor Control Rights, Corporate Governance, and Firm Value," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 25(6), pages 1713-1761.
    28. Steven N. Kaplan & Jeremy C. Stein, 1993. "The Evolution of Buyout Pricing and Financial Structure in the 1980s," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 108(2), pages 313-357.
    29. Juhyun Jung & Kathleen Herbohn & Peter Clarkson, 2018. "Carbon Risk, Carbon Risk Awareness and the Cost of Debt Financing," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 150(4), pages 1151-1171, July.
    30. Kim, Moshe & Kliger, Doron & Vale, Bent, 2003. "Estimating switching costs: the case of banking," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 12(1), pages 25-56, January.
    31. Nadia Ameli & Paul Drummond & Alexander Bisaro & Michael Grubb & Hugues Chenet, 2020. "Climate finance and disclosure for institutional investors: why transparency is not enough," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 160(4), pages 565-589, June.
    32. Fama, Eugene F., 1985. "What's different about banks?," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 15(1), pages 29-39, January.
    33. Rajan, Raghuram & Winton, Andrew, 1995. "Covenants and Collateral as Incentives to Monitor," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 50(4), pages 1113-1146, September.
    34. Glen Dowell & Stuart Hart & Bernard Yeung, 2000. "Do Corporate Global Environmental Standards Create or Destroy Market Value?," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 46(8), pages 1059-1074, August.
    35. Sadi Ozelge & Anthony Saunders, 2012. "The Role of Lending Banks in Forced CEO Turnovers," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 44(4), pages 631-659, June.
    36. Deng, Xin & Kang, Jun-koo & Low, Buen Sin, 2013. "Corporate social responsibility and stakeholder value maximization: Evidence from mergers," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 110(1), pages 87-109.
    37. Steven N. Kaplan & Jeremy C. Stein, 1993. "THE EVOLUTION OF BUYOUT PRICING AND FINANCIAL STRUCTURE (OR, WHAT WENT WRONG) IN THE 1980s," Journal of Applied Corporate Finance, Morgan Stanley, vol. 6(1), pages 72-88, March.
    38. Jens Hagendorff & Sonya Lim & Duc Duy Nguyen, 2023. "Lender Trust and Bank Loan Contracts," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 69(3), pages 1758-1779, March.
    39. Charles J. Hadlock & Joshua R. Pierce, 2010. "New Evidence on Measuring Financial Constraints: Moving Beyond the KZ Index," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 23(5), pages 1909-1940.
    40. Douglas W. Diamond, 1984. "Financial Intermediation and Delegated Monitoring," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 51(3), pages 393-414.
    41. Ding, Xin & Ren, Yajing & Tan, Wenhao & Wu, Haomin, 2023. "Does carbon emission of firms matter for Bank loans decision? Evidence from China," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    42. Hans B. Christensen & Luzi Hail & Christian Leuz, 2021. "Mandatory CSR and sustainability reporting: economic analysis and literature review," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 26(3), pages 1176-1248, September.
    43. Chen, Jie & Su, Xunhua & Tian, Xuan & Xu, Bin, 2022. "Does customer-base structure influence managerial risk-taking incentives?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 143(1), pages 462-483.
    44. Boot, Arnoud W. A., 2000. "Relationship Banking: What Do We Know?," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 9(1), pages 7-25, January.
    45. Bartram, Söhnke M. & Hou, Kewei & Kim, Sehoon, 2022. "Real effects of climate policy: Financial constraints and spillovers," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 143(2), pages 668-696.
    46. Petersen, Mitchell A & Rajan, Raghuram G, 1994. "The Benefits of Lending Relationships: Evidence from Small Business Data," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 49(1), pages 3-37, March.
    47. Manuel Adelino & Miguel A. Ferreira, 2016. "Bank Ratings and Lending Supply: Evidence from Sovereign Downgrades," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 29(7), pages 1709-1746.
    48. Joel F Houston & Hongyu Shan, 2022. "Corporate ESG Profiles and Banking Relationships," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 35(7), pages 3373-3417.
    49. Sudheer Chava & Michael R. Roberts, 2008. "How Does Financing Impact Investment? The Role of Debt Covenants," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 63(5), pages 2085-2121, October.
    50. Barclay, Michael J & Smith, Clifford W, Jr, 1995. "The Maturity Structure of Corporate Debt," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 50(2), pages 609-631, June.
    51. Manove, Michael & Padilla, A Jorge & Pagano, Marco, 2001. "Collateral versus Project Screening: A Model of Lazy Banks," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 32(4), pages 726-744, Winter.
    52. Farzad Saidi & Alminas Žaldokas, 2021. "How Does Firms’ Innovation Disclosure Affect Their Banking Relationships?," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 67(2), pages 742-768, February.
    53. Torsten Ehlers & Frank Packer & Kathrin de Greiff, 2022. "The pricing of carbon risk in syndicated loans: which risks are priced and why?," IFC Bulletins chapters, in: Bank for International Settlements (ed.), Statistics for Sustainable Finance, volume 56, Bank for International Settlements.
    54. Steven N. Kaplan & Luigi Zingales, 1997. "Do Investment-Cash Flow Sensitivities Provide Useful Measures of Financing Constraints?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 112(1), pages 169-215.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. repec:hal:journl:hal-04790588 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Elias Demetriades & Panagiotis Politsidis, 2025. "Bank lending to fossil fuel firms," Post-Print hal-04804492, HAL.
    3. Böhm, Adrian & Eufinger, Christian & Kadach, Igor & Sakasai, Yuki, 2025. "Green banking illusion? The influence of “Eco-Conscious” bank shareholders on credit allocation," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).
    4. Brehmer, Sarah & Cézanne, Thibault & Kirschenmann, Karolin & Zilke, Philip, 2025. "Catalysts for change: Can green bonds accelerate Europe's transition to a green economy?," ZEW policy briefs 11/2025, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Biswas, Sonny & Ozkan, Neslihan & Yin, Junyang, 2025. "Non-bank lending and firm performance: Evidence from the syndicate loan market," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 181(C).
    2. Xiaoyi Lyu & Chenyu Shan & Dragon Yongjun Tang, 2025. "Does Traditional Debt Financing Hurt the Environment? Evidence from Toxic Releases," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 200(4), pages 957-985, September.
    3. Xu Chong Bo & Wenyi Li & Jing Shi & Yi Zheng & Qing Zhou, 2021. "Relationship lending and bank loan covenant violations," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 61(4), pages 5847-5878, December.
    4. Gustafson, Matthew T. & Ivanov, Ivan T. & Meisenzahl, Ralf R., 2021. "Bank monitoring: Evidence from syndicated loans," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 139(2), pages 452-477.
    5. Wenlian Gao & Feifei Zhu & Kai Chen, 2023. "The role of bank lenders in firm leverage adjustments," Journal of Financial Research, Southern Finance Association;Southwestern Finance Association, vol. 46(1), pages 63-97, February.
    6. Shu Feng & Chang Liu & Xiaoling Pu, 2022. "Connected Lending in Bank Lines of Credit," Journal of Financial Services Research, Springer;Western Finance Association, vol. 61(2), pages 187-216, April.
    7. Hu, Shiyang & Li, Xiao & Tian, Gary Gang & Zhao, Jianyu, 2024. "From debt breaches to employee safety: The hidden power of banking interventions," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 56(6).
    8. Kang, Di & Zhuang, Zhuang, 2019. "Should companies care who their lender is? Evidence from loan covenants," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 57(C).
    9. Yildirim, Alev, 2020. "The effect of relationship banking on firm efficiency and default risk," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    10. Nikolaev, Valeri V., 2018. "Scope for renegotiation in private debt contracts," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(2), pages 270-301.
    11. He, Qing & Huang, Jiyuan & Li, Dongxu & Lu, Liping, 2016. "Banks as corporate monitors: Evidence from CEO turnovers in China," BOFIT Discussion Papers 19/2016, Bank of Finland, Institute for Economies in Transition.
    12. Chen, Jie & Mishra, Tapas & Song, Wei & Zhang, Qingjing & Zhang, Zhuang, 2024. "The impact of bank mergers on corporate tax aggressiveness," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    13. Saunders, Anthony & Song, Keke, 2018. "Bank monitoring and CEO risk-taking incentives," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 225-240.
    14. Prilmeier, Robert, 2017. "Why do loans contain covenants? Evidence from lending relationships," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 123(3), pages 558-579.
    15. He, Qing & Huang, Jiyuan & Li, Dongxu & Lu, Liping, 2016. "Banks as corporate monitors: Evidence from CEO turnovers in China," BOFIT Discussion Papers 19/2016, Bank of Finland Institute for Emerging Economies (BOFIT).
    16. Viet Anh Dang & Edward Lee & Yangke Liu & Cheng Zeng, 2018. "Corporate debt maturity and stock price crash risk," European Financial Management, European Financial Management Association, vol. 24(3), pages 451-484, June.
    17. Li, Xiao & Ng, Jeffrey & Saffar, Walid, 2025. "Movable assets as collateral in debt financing and effects on trade credit: Evidence from collateral law reforms," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    18. Xu, Yekun & Zhao, Jiayu & Zhong, Ruohan & Zhang, Qiang, 2026. "Bank competition and corporate tax avoidance: the Chinese experience," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 106(C).
    19. Julian Atanassov, 2016. "Arm’s Length Financing and Innovation: Evidence from Publicly Traded Firms," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 62(1), pages 128-155, January.
    20. Sheng Huang & Ruichang Lu & Anand Srinivasan, 2022. "Bank Dependence and Bank Financing in Corporate M&A," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 68(3), pages 2250-2283, March.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • G21 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Banks; Other Depository Institutions; Micro Finance Institutions; Mortgages
    • G30 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - General
    • Q54 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Climate; Natural Disasters and their Management; Global Warming

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:zbw:bofrdp:72023. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/bofgvfi.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.