This study examines current financial development indices, highlighting the need to incorporate sustainability and resilience metrics. It critically investigates three major indices: the IMF’s Financial Development Index, the World Economic Forum’s Financial Development Index, and the World Bank’s Global Financial Development Database through a comparative analysis. The authors propose the concept of a new Sustainable Financial Development Index (SFDI) that integrates indicators related to economic resilience and sustainability. The proposed composite index aims to provide a more comprehensive measure for policymakers to assess financial development across diverse economic contexts and promote sustainable growth and financial resilience.

Sustainable development seeks to strike a balance between economic growth, social well-being and environmental protection. It should be integrated into financial development as well. As a consequence, banks are realising changes in their roles, decision-making, and operations. This paper aims to introduce a structured literature outlook about the different interpretations of sustainable financial development (SFD) on micro and macro levels. The literature mapping is focusing on three main contexts. The basic assumption of the paper is that it is crucial to emphasise the importance of country-level economic growth, the indicators used to determine the level of financial development and the resilience of the financial intermediary actors. As a consequence, the paper represents some existing results in terms of these three contexts. This gives the future basis for the efficient interpretation of sustainable financial development aspects in the operation and the decision-making processes of financial institutions and also for policy-making institutions on the macro-level.