Social Reporting in European Ethical Banks: A Comparative Study

In the last decade, interest on ethical banks has grown rapidly and considerably in the academic and corporate communities. For this kind of entities, social accountability and reporting tools represent a strategic factor to establish a relationship of trust with customers, to project a desirable reputation and to promote sustainable development. Although the growing attention to this topic, there is a paucity of evidence, particularly in Europe, of social reporting practices of ethical banks. Therefore, this paper sets out to investigate sustainability disclosure practices of European banks adhering to the principles of ethical finance. To this end, through a content analysis, this paper examines, over a 15-year period, from 2000 to 2014, the annual reports of 13 institutions.