ESG ratings of the banking sector – practice and trends

The article is devoted to the actual problem of forming a sectoral methodology for rating commercial banks according to ESG principles, which is necessary for the functioning and regulation of the banking sector in conditions of the increasing importance of the task of achieving the «17 UN Sustainable Development Goals» (SDGs). The strategy to achieve these goals at the tactical level is implemented in many versions of new standards and business principles that incentives to follow the SDGs, which need to be developed taking into account the sectoral specifics of activities. The Russian banking sector passively observes the introduction of quantitative assessments of business achievements in the area of the SDGs, and this weakens the competitiveness of both the financial sector and, as a consequence, the real sector of the economy served by commercial banks. The article substantiates the necessity of adaptation of existing methods of quantitative factor assessments of banking business compliance with «sustainable development criteria», on the example of transformation of ESG rating methodology in Russian practice.