Charting the Green Frontier: Insights From Over Two Decades of Research on Bank Sustainability Disclosure

ABSTRACT The accelerating green transition and the integration of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) risks into prudential supervision have significantly reshaped the role of banks within sustainable development pathways. Supervisory expectations require banks to embed sustainability considerations into governance, risk management, and disclosure practices. In this evolving regulatory landscape, sustainability disclosure (SD) has become a strategic priority, serving both accountability and risk‐management functions. However, despite growing academic attention, research on SD in banking remains fragmented and conceptually heterogeneous. Against this backdrop, this study conducts a systematic literature review (SLR) of 150 empirical articles published between 2004 and 2025 to examine the determinants and effects of SD in banking. The review first classifies SD into five disclosure typologies and 11 specific categories, and then distinguishes between studies investigating the drivers of SD and those analyzing its consequences. Across the literature, ten broad groups consistently emerge as key drivers of SD: bank characheristics, financial characteristics, market‐based characteristics, governance characteristics, leadership characteristics, audit characteristics, reporting practices, ownership and control structures, sustainability performance, and institutional and contextual factors. Moreover, prior studies converge on three main outcome domains: accounting‐based financial performance, market‐based performance, and stakeholder‐related and reputational outcomes. Finally, this review outlines a comprehensive research agenda and offers practical insights for banks, policymakers, and standard setters.