The Green Bond Market and the Banking Sector

This book provides a rigorous examination of the green bond market and its interaction with the banking sector. Over the past decade, green bonds have grown rapidly and become a central instrument in sustainable finance. Despite this expansion, existing research remains fragmented across regulatory discussions, descriptive market analyses, and empirical pricing studies. Moreover, limited attention has been devoted to banks, even though they represent a major issuer category and play a structurally different role from that of corporate and sovereign issuers. The book first describes the institutional evolution of the green bond market, clarifying the role of market-based standards, reporting frameworks, and external review mechanisms. It then maps the market's structure, examining issuance trends, issuer composition, financial characteristics, and use-of-proceeds patterns. A dedicated chapter investigates the pricing of bank-issued green bonds, assessing whether environmental labelling is associated with measurable yield differentials within the banking sector. Finally, the analysis extends to the role of banks in sustainable finance, discussing green bond funding, sustainable lending, regulatory metrics such as the Green Asset Ratio, and climate-related supervisory frameworks. By combining regulatory analysis, bond-level evidence, and an institutional perspective, the book shows how green bonds operate within capital markets and how banks engage with them. It will be of interest to scholars in banking and sustainable finance, graduate students in finance and economics, and practitioners and policymakers concerned with green capital markets.