This resource is also available in French.
France's Financial (Eco) System highlights experience from France in improving the integration of sustainability issues into financial decision-making.
A key area of focus has been on improving information and market analysis. Environmental, social and governance (ESG) reporting requirements were first introduced in the New Economics Regulation law of 2001, and strengthened by the 2010 ‘Grenelle II’ law and 2015 the Law on Energy Transition for Green Growth (EETG).
France has also practised direct public interventions to mobilize capital and enable new markets and expertise to develop. Public financial institutions such as the Caisse des Dépôts and Bpifrance are able to leverage regulated savings accounts and other sources of capital to provide financing in line with sustainability mandates. They committed to mobilising €15 billion towards low-carbon transition by 2017. French institutions have also played a leading role in the development of the green bonds market.
This resource is also available in English.
France's Financial (Eco) System highlights experience from France in improving the integration of sustainability issues into financial decision-making.
A key area of focus has been on improving information and market analysis. Environmental, social and governance (ESG) reporting requirements were first introduced in the New Economics Regulation law of 2001, and strengthened by the 2010 ‘Grenelle II’ law and 2015 the Law on Energy Transition for Green Growth (EETG).
France has also practised direct public interventions to mobilize capital and enable new markets and expertise to develop. Public financial institutions such as the Caisse des Dépôts and Bpifrance are able to leverage regulated savings accounts and other sources of capital to provide financing in line with sustainability mandates. They committed to mobilising €15 billion towards low-carbon transition by 2017. French institutions have also played a leading role in the development of the green bonds market.
Effects of Financial System Size and Structure on the Real Economy: What do we know and what do we not know? provides an overview of the findings in the empirical economics and finance literature on the effects that various financial system characteristics have on real economic outcomes. Although the empirical evidence on various relationships is mixed, there appears to be relatively robust empirical evidence that: financial deepening promotes economic development only up to a certain size of financial systems relative to GDP and that ‘too much finance’ may actually harm economies; that smaller banks tend to have more stable lender-borrower relationships than large banks and that smaller banking institutions extend more credit to SMEs; that market-based banking provides less financing to the real economy than traditional banking while being more prone to financial crisis; and that more concentrated banking markets are less cost efficient.