ESG Investor’s weekly round-up of news on technology and tools in the sustainable investing sector, including PwC, MSCI, Fenergo, Sentifi, and CME Group.
Big Four accountancy firm PwC has unveiled a new European ESG interactive dashboard. It aims to support European asset managers in expanding their ESG operations and gaining an accurate view of investor demand and market developments. It will consist of a report, interactive data tool and raw data files. PwC’s research suggests that 66% of European institutional investors intend to stop investing in non-ESG funds, with two-thirds of that number planning to do so by the end of 2023. Roughly 72% are willing to pay a premium for ESG products and 72% of European asset managers are open to halting all non-ESG product launches by the end of 2024, PwC said. The tool is based on propriety data gathered from 3,354 respondents across eight European countries, including 720 European institutional investors and 320 asset managers. Dariush Yazdani, Global Asset and Wealth Management Research Centre Leader, said: “Managers looking to seize the ESG opportunity should strive to holistically and consistently incorporate ESG across the board, viewing their entire operations through an ESG lens and adopting an all-encompassing approach to ESG, one that ranges from implementing sustainability into their product offering, all the way to assessing the sustainability metrics of their entire business structure.”
Data, analytics and index provider MSCI has unveiled Total Portfolio Footprinting, designed to help financial institutions measure carbon emissions across their lending and investment portfolios as part of the transition to a net-zero economy. The tool allows institutions to better understand the extent and impact of the greenhouse gas emissions they are financing, and it aims to provide the information needed to focus capital on more sustainable business practices. It also provides institutions with the ability to set and manage reduction targets for their financed emissions against a baseline, aligning this with their net zero commitments within banking, insurance and investments. MSCI said Total Portfolio Footprinting would leveraging best-in-class climate data and models to help banks, insurers and other institutions to align with key global standards and requirements, including the Taskforce for Climate Related Disclosure (TCFD) framework, Partnership for Carbon Accounting Financials (PCAF), National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) and European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) standard.
Fenergo, a Dublin-based digital solutions firm, has announced the launch of an ESG services offering to support mandatory regulatory requirements. The ESG SaaS is available as a standalone service or as part of Fenergo’s end-to-end Client Lifecycle Management (CLM) platform. The CLM platform allows financial institutions to streamline data captures for their clients and visualise supply chain hierarchies before applying its ESG ratings, enabling financial institutions to reduce regulatory and reputational risk by ensuring compliance with regulatory obligations, such as the EU’s Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR). Stella Clarke, Fenergo’s Chief Strategy Officer, said: “Financial institutions can leverage existing processes, people and data for ESG, creating a single client view and driving real, tangible efficiencies. This provides financial institutions with the advantage of being able to quickly operationalise ESG compliance processes and meet regulatory obligations, thus protecting reputation and attracting ESG-conscious clients and talent.”
Sentifi, a Zurich-based alternative data provider, has announced a partnership with credit and sustainability risk agency Scope. Through the partnership, Scope will use Sentifi’s analytics within its ESG sentiment review process, with Sentifi becoming Scope’s exclusive provider of ESG analytics. Sentifi’s real-time ESG performance data, assessed and sourced by machine-learning technologies, enables ESG investors to better understand the real-time underlying price signals and sentiment in stocks, commodities, currencies, and cryptocurrencies. Sentifi sources its data from more than 500 million tweets, news articles, forums and blogs to identify price changes in over 59,000 stocks, indices, commodities and currencies, as well as monitoring allocation decisions across 150,000 active and passive funds. Marina Goche, Sentifi’s CEO, said: “In today’s volatile market, investors need to be monitoring market momentum changes as they emerge in digital channels to make informed decisions around impact to portfolio valuation. This is where reliable, granular, and timely alternative dataset can make a significant difference.”
CME Group, a global financial markets operator, has announced an expansion of its suite of voluntary carbon emissions with the addition of two new futures contracts. The CBL N-GEO Trailing and CBL C-GEO Trailing futures contracts will be available for trading on 8 August – pending regulatory review – and will allow clients to trade offset credits no longer within the existing CBL N-GEO and CBL C-GEO contracts eligibility window. Xpansiv exchange CBL intends to launch the N-GEO Trailing spot contact on 18 July, with the C-GEO Trailing spot due to begin trading in January 2023. CME Group has traded 135 million carbon offsets since launch. Peter Keavey, CME Group’s Global Head of Energy and Environmental Products, said: “As liquidity in our carbon markets continues to grow, customers can hedge their risk across a range of different vintages and offset types all on one exchange, with the benefits that come with transacting on CME Group’s platform.”
