Privalomas Lietuvos bankų socialinės atsakomybės atskleidimas finansinėse ataskaitose

LTNuo 2017 metų įsigaliojus ES Direktyvai 2014/95/EU, kai kurioms ES įmonėms socialinės atsakomybės atskleidimas tapo privalomas, tad aktualu ištirti, kaip įmonės, taip pat ir bankai, laikosi šio reguliavimo ir nuo ko jis priklauso. Straipsnio tikslas – ištirti privalomo Lietuvos bankų socialinės atsakomybės atskleidimo 2015–2019 metais lygį ir veiksnius. Taikyta atliktų empirinių tyrimų apžvalga, palyginamoji analizė, tyrimui atlikti – statistinė analizė, koreliacija, regresija. Sukūrus socialinės atskaitomybės atskleidimo indeksą, atlikta penkių didžiausių Lietuvos bankų socialinės atsakomybės ataskaitų turinio analizė. Bankai 2015–2016 metais savanoriškai atskleidė socialinę atsakomybę, tačiau nuo 2017 metų kai kuriuose bankuose atskleidimas buvo nepakankamas. Bankai pateikė daugiau informacijos bendromis, o ne konkretaus bankų sektoriaus temomis. Hipotezės dėl banko turto ir ataskaitų puslapių skaičiaus poveikio socialinės atsakomybės atskleidimui pasitvirtino, tuo tarpu hipotezės dėl banko pelningumo ir kapitalo pakankamumo santykio poveikio socialinės atsakomybės atskleidimui nepasitvirtino. PAGRINDINIAI ŽODŽIAI: socialinė atsakomybė, atskleidimas, bankai, Lietuva. [Iš leidinio]

ENThe global financial crisis in 2008 showed that the financial sector was not fully aligned with the widespread societal goal of a sustainable future. Banks have a unique role to play in the financial sector in achieving sustainable development goals. Banks are private companies. To make a profit, they use the resources entrusted to them by third parties, and their activities are based on public trust. This idea is based on dialogue with the stakeholders for economic, social and environmental issues and ethical behaviour. By disclosing information about their social responsibility (CSR), banks can manage risk more effectively and build up mutual trust, so it is very important to inform stakeholders efficiently about CSR. An analysis of previous empirical research revealed that no research has been conducted in Lithuania to establish the practice of disclosure of CSR of commercial banks. Therefore, it is important to determine the extent of the disclosure of CSR information in Lithuanian commercial banks. Analysing the scientific literature, it was observed that the voluntary disclosure of CSR in financial statements is a very relevant topic in the 21st century, but the issue of corporate disclosure in individual sectors, in this case financial institutions, is less frequently addressed. In the last decade, quite a lot of empirical research has been conducted on the voluntary disclosure of bank CSR in countries in Asia and the African region. Significantly fewer empirical studies on the disclosure of banks’ CSR were found in European countries. In other cases, banks often fall into the sample of surveys that analyse all firms in general, but it is quite difficult to draw conclusions from these that are relevant to banks alone. In addition, with the exception of a few countries, most studies conducted in EU countries before 2017 analysed voluntary CSR disclosure, because they were unregulated and therefore optional.Since the entry into force of EU Directive 2014/95/ EU in 2017, the disclosure of CSR has become mandatory for some companies; therefore, it is relevant to examine how companies, including banks, comply with this regulation. The aim of the research was to evaluate the level and factors of mandatory disclosure of social responsibility in Lithuanian banks in the period 2015 to 2019, by setting the following tasks: to analyse empirical research performed on CSR disclosure in the world; to choose a research methodology for the disclosure of CSR; and to investigate the level and factors of CSR disclosure in Lithuanian banks between 2015 and 2019. The research methods used were: the analysis of scientific literature and empirical research, and the analysis of statistical description, correlation and regression. EU Directive 2014/95/EU is an essential step in launching mandatory CSR disclosure. In order to assess the level of CSR disclosure in Lithuania, the CSR Disclosure Index was applied, which consists of 32 general and banking sector-specific index elements, based on a combination of GRI standards, the EU Directive, and non-financial reporting guidelines. The study examines the CSR disclosure of the five largest Lithuanian banks (Swedbank, SEB, Luminor, Šiaulių bankas and the Lithuanian arm of Danske Bank), which have had to disclose non-financial information since 2017. All these commercial banks disclosed some CSR in their annual reports. All the banks disclosed CSR voluntarily when disclosure was not yet mandatory in 2015 and 2016.The results show that in the analysed period of 2015 to 2019, the disclosure of CSR by banks increased, but not significantly. However, although CSR disclosure became mandatory in 2017, it was not enough in some banks. GRI standards are the most commonly used CSR reporting system, and some banks implement the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The study also revealed that banks provided more information on general topics than on specific banking sector topics. In only seven of the 25 reports surveyed did the banks provide more information on specific banking issues than on general ones. The results of the study confirm previous studies, as they show a positive, very significant and strong relationship between a bank’s size and the level of CSR disclosure. This also established a significant relationship between the CSR disclosure index and the number of pages containing CSR information. However, contrary to the results of most previous studies, the study did not find any significant relationship between a bank’s return on equity (ROE), CET1 ratio and the CSR disclosure index. In addition, this in-depth analysis builds on previous research, and further expands knowledge of banks’ CSR disclosure practices. The regression analysis also showed that a bank’s size (assets) and the number of pages in reports have an impact on the level of CSR disclosure. KEY WORDS: social responsibility, disclosure, banks, Lithuania. [From the publication]

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