Submission Deadline for GRASFI Asia: 31 August 2026

The Role of Biodiversity Risk in Shaping Bank LendingDecisions

2 September 2026
Authors: Karoline Bax and Aida Cehajic
Presenter: Aida Cehajic
Abstract:

We examine whether banks incorporate firm-level biodiversity risk into their lending decisions. Using a large sample of syndicated loans matched to firm-level biodiversity risk measures, we document that borrowers with higher biodiversity risk face significantly higher loan spreads. Evidence on loan volumes is weaker, suggesting that banks primarily adjust along the pricing margin rather than restricting credit supply. To capture biodiversity risk exposure, we develop a novel text-based indicator derived from corporate disclosures that incorporates the contextual content of environmental risk. To strengthen identification, we exploit firm-level environmental violations as shocks to environmental credibility. In a stacked di!erence-in-differences framework, we show that such violations increase the sensitivity of loan pricing to biodiversity risk. Overall, our findings provide evidence that biodiversity risk is a financially material dimension of environmental risk in credit markets.

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