Sustainable Finance in Banking: Modeling the Influence of Policy Frameworks and ESG Integration on Green Lending and Transition Outcomes

Abstract

This paper discusses the relationship between sustainable finance in the banking industry and how regulatory requirements and integration of ESG can be directly translated into tangible transition results. Based on the literature of institutional theory and sustainable finance, the study develops and experiments the structured transmission framework connecting the policy frameworks, ESG integration, green lending, and sustainable transition outcomes. The study examines both direct and mediated correlations between the constructs using cross-sectional survey data on 214 banking professionals using a ‘Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM)’. It is found that the policy frameworks are the main institutional driver that has a strong impact on ESG integration and green lending practices. ESG integration has a positive impact on green lending, and no direct impact on transition outcomes, which means that governance embedding is not enough to achieve measurable sustainability outcomes. Green lending seems to be the key operational tool, which has a powerful and considerable impact on the outcomes of transitions. The mediation analysis proves that ESG integration only leads to the sustainability performance when converted into climate-aligned credit allocation. The findings take a sustainable finance transmission viewpoint, which shows that regulatory pressure, governance mechanisms, and financial intermediation exist in a sequential manner to determine low-carbon transition performance. The research paper adds to the theory by taking institutional accounts to operational banking behavior and offers practical implications to regulators and banking managers wishing to hasten net-zero finance approaches.