The increasing relevance of ESG in financial research and practice is driven by materiality, investor demand, and regulation. Since initiatives in the ESG area are associated with (high) costs for companies, the question has arisen as to whether these investments “pay off” in terms of higher performance or lower risk. Previous research has primarily focused on the shareholder value perspective. Studies on the relationship between ESG and credit risk are still scarce, especially for the European context. From a principal-agent theoretical perspective, it can be assumed that creditors assess ESG investments differently than owners. The empirical results presented here show that creditors do not (yet) reward investments in ESG.