The impact of market power on banks' ESG scores - evidence from Europe and North America

This paper empirically examines the relationship between market power and Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) scores of banks in Europe and North America from 2010 to 2021, focusing separately on loan and deposit markets. Employing the Lerner Index as a non-structural measure of market power, our findings suggest that the impact of banking market power on ESG scores varies by region and the respective loan or deposit market. We find a negative effect of loan and deposit market power on ESG scores of European banks whereas the opposite effect can be observed for North American banks exhibiting loan market power. Further sensitivity analyses reveal that factors such as banks being Global Systemically Important (G-SIBs), and different ESG-related events like the Paris Agreement, the reemergence of the #MeToo movement and the COVID-19 pandemic may also explain the relationship between bank market power and ESG scores. Overall, our results underline that banking market power plays a pivotal role in enforcing ESG commitments in banking, offering key insights for policymakers, regulators, and banking stakeholders.