Corporate governance structure and climate-related financial disclosure: Conventional banks versus Islamic banks

Abstract

This paper examines whether the different corporate governance structures of conventional banks (CBs) and Islamic banks (IBs) have varying effects on their respective climate-related disclosure (CRD). Employing a unique dataset of CBs and IBs' CRD and corporate governance structures for the period of 2016-2019, we found that their respective corporate governance structures did indeed affect their CRD in different ways. Our findings suggest that CBs disclose more climate-related information than IBs because IBs focus on Sharia compliance which does not emphasise the protection of the environment, while CBs may be more responsive to shareholders' and stakeholders' demands on climate and environment. These effects were stronger with the quality of governance, that is, CBs disclose more climate-related information with the governance quality, while IBs disclose even less when their governance quality increases. The findings of this study have important implications for climate change, especially the Paris Accord and The 26th Meeting of the Conference of Parties (COP26). There are also policy implications for sustainable financial markets and the financial services sector.