Civil society versus banks: Bottom-up pressure in sustainable finance

Banks worldwide are increasingly under the scrutiny of CSOs (Civil Society Organizations). This bottom-up pressure remains overlooked in the rapidly expanding literature on the politics of sustainable finance. With a focus on environmental (mis)conduct, the paper investigates the corporate shaming of banks by Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and grassroots groups. The empirical investigation of this outside lobbying is articulated in three questions: (1) What are the environmental issues for which CSOs shame banks? (2) Which CSOs shame banks? and (3) Which banks are shamed by CSOs? Corporate and political opportunity structures are considered in a multivariate analysis to examine how the risk of CSO criticism varies across banks and countries. The empirical exploration covers CSO advocacy against the Top-1000 banks worldwide for the period 2010–2022. The paper relies on data from Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) controversies. This kind of data on corporate reputation is of policy significance but remains underused in political research.