Ecological evolution of financial market: Ecologically responsible investment

Abstract

The international financial market is significantly influenced by ideas of Corporate Social Responsibility/Environmental-Social-Governance. As it is commonly known—CSR/ESG-ideas contain also crucial ecological components. Nowadays, a lot of leading financial institutions in Europe keep or gain clients thanks to using environmental aspects. The aim of the elaboration is to indicate and analyse the problem of implementation of environmental rules in financial business, especially Ecologically Responsible Investment (ERI). The considerations are based on selected cases of business practice of Polish financial market and surveys conducted in the period of 2009-2014 on a representative sample of Polish society. Poland is one of the most important and promising emerging markets hosting key financial players such as Deutsche Bank, Commerzbank, Citigroup, BNP Paribas, UniCredit, Millennium, Raiffeisen Bank, ING, and also Banco Santander. The results clearly show that problem of ecological adjustment of financial institutions to public requirements concerning ecological standards really exist. The growing and consistent engagement of financial business for natural environment protection is a fact. ERI is a clear evidence of that. The results could be also useful for creating responsible financial business in modern economy. However, the implementation of environmental rules on financial market is not only inspiring, but also questionable. Undoubtedly, the ecological challenge in financial business is an important subject of scientific research.