Assessing the Sustainable Performance of European Banks: Towards an Integrated Reporting

In this study, we define a Sustainable Performance Index (SPI) and apply it to twelve
major European banks for the period 2006-2014. We implement an original framework
based on a multi-attribute utility approach to assess the sustainable performance of these
banks including the economic, environmental and social dimensions.Wealso include the
opinion of six major stakeholders. The SPI allows the banks to define the strategy that
improve their action in terms of sustainability. It is used to identify the weaknesses and
strengths of a bank vis-à-vis its stakeholders and invites banks to consider the actions
needed to improve their satisfaction.
At the end of this study we come to the following conclusions: first, according to the
correlation analysis, our study shows the degree of sustainable performance of banks is in
the same direction as respecting the interests of their stakeholders. Then, the examination
of the indicators and criteria of SPI shows that the rise in SPI is mainly driven by the
improvement of stakeholders’ utility, particularly those of customers and regulators.
Finally, we understand clearly that sustainable performance is not related only to
traditional financial performance; it now includes social and environmental factors in
addition to the purely economic dimensions.