Corporate sustainable finance in recent years: insights from Italy

Valentina Nigro () and Sabrina Pastorelli ()
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Valentina Nigro: Bank of Italy
Sabrina Pastorelli: Bank of Italy

No 1021, Questioni di Economia e Finanza (Occasional Papers) from Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area

Abstract: This paper investigates corporate sustainable finance in Italy between 2021 and 2024, using firm-level and bank-level data drawn respectively from Banca d'Italia's Survey of Industrial and Service Firms (INVIND) and the Regional Bank Lending Survey (RBLS). In the study, a green investment is defined as a project aimed at improving energy efficiency and/or increasing the use or production of renewable energy. Just over one quarter of firms reported having undertaken such investment over this period, with a strong positive correlation with firm size. Financing relies mainly on internal resources, while bank credit plays a more significant role for smaller firms; the use of market-based instruments remains marginal. The estimates confirm that larger companies are more likely to finance these investments from their own resources than both similarly sized non-green firms and smaller companies undertaking environmentally sustainable projects. The banks surveyed indicate that green loans still account for a limited share of bank credit to companies. This may reflect the difficulties faced by intermediaries in incorporating firms' environmental sustainability objectives into their credit risk assessment models.

Keywords: green finance; sustainable investment; survey data (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D22 D25 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026-06
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bdi:opques:qef_1021_26

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