An Evaluation of Green Banking Practices in Bangladesh

Abstract

Green Banking is any form of banking that benefits the environment. Green banking shifts banks from the ‘profit, profit and profit motive to ‘planet, people and profit’ motive. Green banking is very important in mitigating the Credit Risk, Legal Risk, Security Risk and Reputation Risk in the banking sector. The study mainly aims to analyze the Green Banking practices among SCBs, SDBs, PCBs and FCBs in Bangladesh. The study is of analytical and theoretical in nature based on secondary data. The study finds that 47 banks have adopted the Green Banking policy, formed Green Banking Unit, allocated and utilized budget for green banking. But the allocation and utilization of budget of SCBs and SDBs are not satisfactory. Online banking and ATM facilities of SCBs and SDBs are very poor. It is also found that there is a sharp increase in giving loans to environmentally friendly projects by banks. Researcher found that some banks still do not and some banks are in the first phase in the policy guideline set by BB. The greatest reason for not adopt Green Banking perhaps is that it often require a large initial cost. As SCBs and SDBs are far behind to adopt online banking and ATM facilities, our government should provide enough fund and technical support to them. Bangladesh Bank should enforce SCBs, SDBs, PCBs and FCBS, that they should assess the sensitive issues like vulnerable groups; involuntary displacement etc while investing or funding the projects.

Keywords: GB= Green Banking, FCBs = Foreign Commercial Banks, PCBs = Private Commercial Banks, SCBs = State owned Commercial Banks, SDBs = Specialized Development Banks.