An updated study comparing key financial information about the world’s biggest banks, or Global Systemically Important Financial Institutions (GSIFIs), and a group of leading sustainable banks has shown continued significant differences.

The results, consistent with past research, show:

• Sustainable banks lend almost twice as much of their assets on their balance sheet, when compared with the big banks (75.9% compared to 40.1%, from 2003 to 2012)
• Sustainable banks rely on customer deposits to a much greater degree to fund their balance sheets (73.1% versus 42.9%)
• Sustainable banks maintained stronger capital positions, relative to their larger contemporaries, especially when measured by equity/total assets (7.2% versus 5.5%)
• Sustainable banks deliver comparable returns on assets over the cycle (0.56% versus 0.57%) with lower levels of volatility, and better returns post-crisis (0.53% versus 0.37%).