How do national banking policies shape green banking regulation in the Visegrad four countries?

Abstract This article examines whether green banking regulation in the Visegrád Four countries—Czechia, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia—is shaped primarily by prudential considerations or by national banking policy priorities within the common EU prudential framework. Drawing on a policy design perspective and the theory of Really Responsive Regulation, it compares the European Central Bank’s approach with national regulatory and supervisory arrangements, covering microprudential and macroprudential instruments, supervisory practices, and monetary policy measures related to green finance. The analysis identifies four distinct national policy design models: SSM convergence (Slovakia), minimalist implementation (Czechia), development-bank-led green finance with EU supervisory convergence (Poland), and an integrated central-bank-led model (Hungary). The findings demonstrate that regulatory harmonization does not necessarily produce convergent national regulatory practices. Instead, differences in institutional settings, policy priorities, and supervisory traditions continue to shape national regulatory choices, supporting the proposition that regulatory design remains responsive to national institutional contexts within a common supranational framework.