SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT AND CSR IN THE FINANCIAL SECTOR

The recent financial crisis has reignited discussions on corporate social responsibility (CSR), mainly on social responsibility of financial companies. The problems that have arisen during the crisis stressed the fact that the financial system has not effectively fulfill the role of financing the real economy, undermining sustainable economic development. The article analyzes the links between sustainable development and corporate social responsibility and presents a normative approach of corporate social responsibility in the financial sector. Through the functions they perform, financial companies can help promote economic growth, increase employment, improve living standards of people, and even contribute to the environmental protection, so that they can have a notable contribution to the promotion of sustainable development when they act effectively. The paper outlines several measures, which, if applied by financial companies, would transfrom them in promoters of sustainable development.