Green global value chain (GGVC) plays a critical role in minimizing the overall ecological influences, and this article explores the role of financial systems. This paper empirically analyses the impacts of financial development (FD) on green global value chain (GGVC) management. We employ five aspects of green global value chain index score (GLIScore), including Customs Score (GGVC_CS), Infrastructure Score (GGVC_IS), International Shipments Score (GGVC_ISS), and Logistics Competence and Quality Score (GGVC_LCQ), Timeliness Score (GGVC_TLS), and Tracking and Tracing Score (GGVC_TS). Financial development encompasses the composite financial development index (FD_FD), financial institutions' development (FD_FI), financial markets' development (FD_FM), and the depth, accessibility, and efficiency of financial institutions and financial markets. Different econometric techniques are utilized in a database of 51 developing and 24 developed countries from 2001 to 2021. Our estimation results demonstrate that countries implementing FD play a critical role in managing the GGVC, especially the composite FD and financial market development activities. Furthermore, promoting the development of depth, access, and efficiency of financial markets and financial institutions has the potential to contribute significantly to the effectiveness of GGVC management, especially in promoting in-depth development. For further discussion on the role of FD, we reveal the short-run and long-run effects of FD_FD, FD_FI, and FD_FM on GGVC and compare the influence of FD on GGVC. The results suggest that the FD nexus is more likely to exist in the long run. Notably, promoting FD will enormously enhance GGVC performance in all aspects in developed and developing countries, highlighting GGVC’s performance in developing countries.