ESG MANAGEMENT IN COMMERCIAL BANKS OF UZBEKISTAN: EVALUATION PRACTICES, KEY DETERMINANTS, AND STRATEGIC PRIORITIES
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https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20212588##article.subject##:
ESG management; commercial banks; Uzbekistan; green banking; sustainability; cost of capital; transition economies; governance quality##article.abstract##
This article examines Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) management practices within the commercial
banking sector of Uzbekistan, a transition economy at an early but accelerating stage of sustainability integration.
Drawing on a multi-method research design that combines semi-structured expert interviews with banking practitioners,
systematic analysis of bank annual reports and regulatory documents, and a comparative review of empirical evidence
from Middle Eastern and international banking contexts, the study identifies the principal factors shaping ESG adoption
and benchmarks Uzbek bank performance against regional and global comparators. The findings reveal that Uzbekistan’s
banking sector exhibits a composite ESG score of approximately 14-19 out of 100 – substantially below the regional
Middle Eastern average of 44.3 and the global LSEG average of 52 – with the governance and environmental pillars representing
the most acute performance gaps. Six principal factor clusters determine ESG management trajectories: regulatory
and institutional frameworks, bank-level governance, international cooperation, institutional capacity, macroeconomic
context, and market-based investor pressure. The regulatory environment, characterized by expanding but non-binding
policy frameworks and the absence of a national ESG taxonomy applicable to the full banking sector, is identified as the
most significant external constraint. The article develops a sequenced, evidence-based reform agenda, establishing governance
formalization as the highest-priority entry point for ESG investment based on cross-country evidence that governance
quality improvements generate measurable reductions in the cost of debt and equity in emerging market banks.
The article contributes to the sparse empirical literature on ESG management in post-Soviet transition economies and
provides actionable recommendations for banking practitioners and regulators in Uzbekistan
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