Sustainable finance and gender diversity nexus: moderating role of bank size and stability

Purpose This paper aims to examine the sustainable finance and gender diversity nexus. Moreover, the authors investigate the moderating effect of bank size and stability in the context of sustainable finance and gender nexus in Bangladesh. Design/methodology/approach The authors apply ordinary least square and bootstrapped quantile regression with a novel handpicked data set consisting of 24 listed private commercial banks in Bangladesh for the period of 2015–2022. Findings The findings confirm that female representation in higher management has significant positive impact on sustainable finance. The impact of female representation on higher management is significantly higher than the influence of female representation on the board. Bank size moderates the relationship between gender diversity and sustainable finance. Moreover, the impact of gender diversity on sustainable finance is quantile dependent. Nonperforming loan and inflation are detrimental for the development of sustainable finance. Originality/value This study contributes to the existing literature in a number of ways. First, this study fills the void of knowledge gap in sustainable finance–gender diversity theory. Second, this study develops a unique sustainable finance variable by using handpicked data directly collected from the bank’s financial statements. Third, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is one of the first few studies to investigate the moderating effect of bank size and stability in the context of sustainable finance and gender nexus. Finally, the findings are robust and consistent across various estimations, subsample analysis and alternative measures.