Sustainability practices and reporting by the South African banking sector
Abstract
Sustainability reporting based on the GRI guidelines is a relatively new global concept. The
principle of the triple bottom line reporting which is recommended by the King III Code of
Corporate Governance is the basic premise of the GRI guidelines. However, the guidelines are
applied on a voluntary basis and there is still no prescribed standard format of a sustainability
report.
The banking sector is one of the key players in the country’s economy and this study focused
mainly on sustainability reporting within the SA’s banking sector. The main purpose was to
determine whether there is comparability of reporting within the sector. In order to attain this, a
qualitative study which comprised content analysis of the sustainability reports of the banks was
conducted. Sustainability reports of seven banks (five South African banks and two foreign
banks) were studied and analysed.
The study revealed that the banks’ sustainability reports vary significantly in content. This is due
to the fact that the GRI guidelines provide a broad choice of indicators. Banks have a choice on
what they report on. There needs to be standardization of sustainability reporting within the
sector in order for comparability of the reports to be attained.