Corporate social responsibility policies of commercial banks in developing countries

We investigate the corporate social responsibility (CSR) policies of commercial banks in developing countries. Our analysis is based on a sample of 402 banks from 44 countries. We also analyze how bank and country characteristics connect with banks' CSR policies. We find that there is a significant difference regarding the CSR scores among individual banks and countries. There is not much difference along various per capita income classes. We establish a positive and significant association between CSR policies and bank characteristics such as total assets and return on assets, as well as with country specific characteristics such as financial development and the ability of citizens to freely express their opinions. The openness of a country is negatively associated with banks' CSR policies.