Green Banking: A Systematic Literature Review of Developed and Developing Countries

Abstract

Green banks attract private investment to green projects, facilitating affordable transitions to climate‐resilient economies. However, the existing literature remains fragmented, lacking cross‐country analyses connecting theory, policy design and institutional practice within a multi‐framework, especially regarding the roles of central banks, financial regulators and financial institutions. This paper addresses this gap through a systematic literature review of green banking in both developed and developing countries, with a focus on regulatory tools and financial instruments. The findings identify key trends, recurring definitional patterns and comparative typologies of green banking models and regulatory frameworks. The review indicates that developed countries rely on market‐based and risk‐oriented tools, whereas developing countries adopt more directive and allocative approaches. The review's novelty lies in integrating a macro‐meso‐micro logic into institutional maturity, policy mechanisms and outcomes perspective. This integrated framework (MMM‐IPMO) provides a vertical multi‐level structure and horizontal causal mechanism to examine how central banks, financial regulators and financial institutions interact to translate institutional maturity and policy mechanisms into outcomes, offering a structured foundation for future theoretical and empirical research.