Landler, Cosima (2025) Sustainable Finance: Primary barriers, drivers and opportunities for banking institutes to finance sustainability-linked loans for small and medium-sized enterprises. Master thesis, Sustainable Entrepreneurship (SE).
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Abstract
This study investigates the primary barriers, drivers, and opportunities for banking institutions to finance sustainability-linked loans (SLL) for small and medium-sized enterprises (SME). These companies are crucial to the sustainable transition, but they are often excluded from sustainable finance instruments, such as SLLs. Using a qualitative research design, data were collected through six semi-structured expert interviews with banking professionals in Austria and the Netherlands, bringing insights from an emerging (Austria) and mature sustainable finance markets (The Netherlands). The findings reveal that major barriers include the lack of reliable sustainability data from SMEs, limited resources for ESG reporting, complex KPI-setting processes, low financial incentives, and concerns about greenwashing. Additionally, regulatory uncertainty and insufficient client demand, especially in the Austrian market, were identified. On the other hand, key drivers include growing regulatory and investor pressure, internal institutional motivation, and the interest from stakeholders on the banking institutes sustainability improvements. The study also identifies opportunities such as the adoption of standardized ESG ratings (e.g. EcoVadis) for SMEs and the development of SME-specific SLL guidelines from institutions such as the LMA. To sum up, the research highlights the urgent need for regulatory clarity, practical tools, and targeted incentives to expand the accessibility and effectiveness of SLLs in the SME sector.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Master) |
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| Name supervisor: | Jong, G. de |
| Date Deposited: | 21 Jul 2025 06:10 |
| Last Modified: | 21 Jul 2025 06:10 |
| URI: | https://campus-fryslan.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/id/eprint/710 |
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