La non-financial disclosure nell’ottica del report integrato. Un’analisi qualitativa sulle banche italiane

The pursuit of sustainable development has become an essential direction for every type of economic activity. The respect of the Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) principles is most common way to adopt consistent choices and behaviours. To demonstrate progress in these three dimensions, larger companies are required to disclose appropriate documents to be assessed by external stakeholders. About sustainability, credit intermediaries play a leading role. They can contribute either directly, by changing the purpose and destination of their investments, or indirectly through lending activity, requiring a verification of the creditworthiness of credit applicants also from the sustainability side. This paper evaluates the quality of ESG disclosure of listed domestic banks by examining their reports and comparing them with the guidelines of Integrated Report (IR); the latest development of a long series of the proposals that have attempted to reform financial accounting and corporate reporting. The investigation shows banks have a good quality level of non-financial disclosure, although not all the objectives set by the promoters of the IR have yet been achieved, for instance slim reports, easily accessible to a wide audience of stakeholders and readily comparable in time and space. Furthermore, in value generation, the linkages between economic and sustainability performances are not yet enough clear.