Sustainability reporting in European cooperative Banks: an exploratory analysis

Informes de sostenibilidad en cooperativas de crédito: un análisis de su divulgación en Europa

Helena María Bollas Araya (), Elies Seguí Mas () and Fernando Polo Garrido ()
Additional contact information
Helena María Bollas Araya: Universitat Politècnica de València.
Elies Seguí Mas: Centro de Investigación en Gestión de Empresas (CEGEA), Universitat Politècnica de València.
Fernando Polo Garrido: Centro de Investigación en Gestión de Empresas (CEGEA), Universitat Politècnica de València.

REVESCO: Revista de estudios cooperativos, 2014, issue 115, 30-56

Abstract: Cooperative banks, as a social economy institution, have a special relationship with sustainability. Given the lack of previous studies, we aim to develop an exploratory analysis on sustainability reporting in European cooperative banks. On one hand, we studied the sustainability reporting evolution to know whether the crisis influenced on this practice. On the other hand, we compared cooperative reports with banks' reports. Moreover, we analysed the sustainability reports content to know what information is disclosed by cooperative banks. The results show that although the number of cooperative banks' reports is low, it responds to the weight in the European market. They also illustrate the late incorporation of cooperative banks into sustainability reporting (consequence of their conservative nature). We cannot conclude that differences between banks and cooperative banks were significant, but -in relation to private banks- cooperatives stand out in the use of latest standards, integrated reporting and best application levels. Regarding to the content of sustainability reports, cooperative banks provide more social issues than economic or environmental issues. In the current situation, disclosing information about sustainability would help to reinforce the stakeholders' trust.

Keywords: CSR; Reports; GRI; Credit Cooperatives; Banks.; RSC; Sostenibilidad; Reporting; GRI; Cooperativas de crédito; Bancos. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: G21 M14 M40 P13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://eprints.ucm.es/id/eprint/40141/1/2014-115%2830-56%29.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ucm:reveco:y:2014:i:115:p:30-56

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
Escuela de Estudios Cooperativos. Universidad Complutense de Madrid. Despacho 46 Pabellón 6º. Campus de Somosaguas. 28223 Pozuelo de Alarcón, Madrid, España

Access Statistics for this article

REVESCO: Revista de estudios cooperativos is currently edited by Escuela de Estudios Cooperativos, Universidad Complutense de Madrid

More articles in REVESCO: Revista de estudios cooperativos from Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y Empresariales, Escuela de Estudios Cooperativos Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Águeda González Abad ().