기업의 ESG 위원회가 신용등급에 미치는 영향

초록

This study aims to predict that firms with ESG committees will have an advantage in financing costs and to test whether ESG committees have an impact on credit ratings. We also investigate whether the more independent and active the ESG committee is, the more positive the impact on ratings. In this study, we conduct an empirical analysis on a sample of companies listed on the Korean Exchange (excluding financial firms) from 2016 to 2020 that have ratings from all three credit rating agencies. The results of our empirical analysis are as follows. First, we find that corporate bond ratings increase for companies with an ESG committee. On the other hand, the independence of the ESG committee, as measured by the percentage of independent directors on the ESG committee, does not have a significant effect on the rating, while the more active the ESG committee, the better the rating. This finding suggests that it is more important for ESG committees to be active on an ongoing basis. The same results were found when the dependent variable was replaced by CP ratings in additional analyses. Furthermore, when we separated ESG committees into two categories and examined their relationship with credit ratings, we found that only ESG committees(type A) improved ratings, excluding compliance committees(type B). This research confirms that stakeholders view the introduction of ESG committees in a positive light, and since ESG activities reduce financial risk and have a positive effect on the cost of capital and credit ratings, similar effects can be expected for companies with ESG committees as the body responsible for implementing ESG activities. We believe that this study is significant in that it confirms the existence of such an effect, thereby justifying the purpose of establishing ESG committees in response to the criticism that ESG committees can be used as a means of greenwashing, as a demonstration to investors and for marketing purposes.

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