CSR disclosures in the banking industry. Empirical evidence from Poland

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present an overview of the concepts of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in banks and integrated reporting, a review of the literature on the subject and the author’s own research results. The author’s research was designed to identify information on CSR included in the management commentaries of selected banks operating in Poland and to evaluate the disclosures with regard to their quality, diversity and the ways they change over time. Design/methodology/approach – The author formulates three hypotheses relating to the social and environmental disclosures and verifies them using a disclosure index approach based on the analysis of 84 management commentaries of 12 banks operating in Poland in 2005-2011. Findings – Banks tend to include CSR disclosures in the management commentary. They present CSR information in a diverse manner, focusing mainly on community involvement. The quality of CSR disclosures in 2011 was higher as compared with 2005. None of the banks in the sample produced integrated reports. Research limitations/implications – The study concentrates on CSR disclosures only in management commentaries and relies on the review of information presented by a limited number of banks. Originality/value – The study contributes to the scarce literature on social responsibility disclosures by financial institutions in Central and Eastern Europe; it also discusses a new integrated reporting model.