Abstract:

The aim of the article is to assess the activities of commercial banks in the field of sustainable development in the context of supporting social objectives. To achieve this goal, diagnostic features of 11 commercial banks were selected and prioritized using methods of multidimensional comparative analysis – 2 methods of linear ordering: the Hellwig method and the TOPSIS method. The time horizon of the study covers the years 2019-2020. Thus, it includes the period of 2020, in which the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic had a decisive impact on the situation of banks. Therefore, special attention was paid to how the activities undertaken by banks in this area changed during the pandemic. The study allows to formulate a conclusion that the COVID-19 pandemic reoriented the previous structure of social spending of commercial banks operating in the Polish banking sector. First of all, commercial banks increased their donations. The main beneficiaries appeared to be medical institutions and their staff. The evaluation of banks’ activities in this respect allowed to single out the best and the weakest banks in terms of sustainable development in the context of supporting social goals. In the obtained ranking, the first four places belong to banks whose main shareholder is the state treasury.