Moody’s Expands ESG Credit Ratings to More Industries

Moody’s Investors Service has widened its coverage of ESG credit risk scores to industries including oil and gas, utilities, semiconductors and financial services. The rating company offers issuer profile scores for 1,700 borrowers including companies, nations and regional entities, measuring their exposure to ESG-related risks. It also provides credit impact scores, which give an indication of the impact those ESG measures have on an issuer’s credit rating. Each gauge is expressed on a five-point scale.

Leveraged Finance Investors Call for More Loans ESG Data

European investors in leveraged finance instruments have called for more sustainability data on the securities. The European Leveraged Finance Association (ELFA) has urged vendors to do more to increase transparency into the asset class. The organisation said vendors covered no more than 10 per cent of leveraged loans. That compares with up to 79 per cent coverage of investment grade borrowers.

NeoXam Partners Data Management Consultancy Soranus

NeoXam continues to extend its partner portfolio with the addition of a strategic agreement with Soranus, a data management consultancy. The agreement is designed to support client implementation projects of the company’s DataHub across Switzerland and Liechtenstein.

Arteria AI Acquires H4 to Further Develop Digital Documentation Solution

Arteria AI, a provider of enterprise digital documentation, has agreed to acquire certain financial services assets of H4, a lifecycle management platform. H4’s chairman and co-founder Joe Seifert will join Arteria AI’s team as a senior advisor. Arteria AI, a Deloitte spin off, works with large banks to accelerate client documentation processes at scale. From document generation to signature, the company uses context-specific AI, data, analytics and automation to allow stakeholders across the bank to serve clients more quickly.

Supply Chain ESG Solution Launched by Sustainalytics

Sustainalytics has created Corporate Supply Chain ESG Solutions, a service that will enable clients to gauge the sustainability of companies in their supply chains. The Morningstar unit said the offering would help many industries assess, report and mitigate their ESG risks. The product is delivered through Sustainlytics’ ESG Assessment Platform and draws on the Amsterdam-based company’s huge data pools and its ESG Risk Ratings product.

APAA ESG Risk Guide Stops Short of Mandatory Disclosures

The Australian Prudential Regulatory Authority has become the latest overseer to issue a guidance on banks’ management of climate risks in their portfolios. While its latest guidance offers advice on how institutions should approach the issue, it does not advocate mandatory ESG disclosures. Instead, the regulator said lenders should consider whether other “voluntary disclosures could be beneficial in enhancing transparency and giving confidence to the wider market”.

Banks, Institutions Back ESG Book’s Free Data Project

An alliance of global banks, institutions and investors has launched ESG Book, a free source of information that its creators say will make sustainability data a public good. Companies will be able to freely access the data lake to help them report on their own ESG records and financial institutions will be able to use it to gauge the sustainability of their portfolios. ESG Book will be hosted on a platform built by Frankfurt-based data vendor Arabesque. We’ll be following up with more details on this one soon!

Aztec Group Selects Fenergo Client Lifecycle Management Solution

Aztec Group, a specialist in alternative asset classes, has selected Fenergo’s cloud-native Software-as-a-Service client lifecycle management solution to digitalise client and investor journeys. The solution will be rolled out to replace legacy systems for onboarding and compliance as Aztec Group works towards digital transformation. The Fenergo offering is a fully managed, multi-tenant, API-first platform designed to digitalise the lifecycle process while giving clients self-service access to upload data and documentation through an easy-to-use portal.

Finastra Adds €STR, TONAR and SORA Rates to Fusion LIBOR Transition Calculator

Finastra has introduced additional Alternative Reference Rates (ARR) and Risk-Free Rates (RFRs) to its Fusion LIBOR Transition Calculator. The move enables banks, corporates and borrowers to calculate ARR in preparation for the end of the majority of LIBOR rates on December 31, 2021. In addition to SOFR for the US dollar and SONIA for pounds sterling, the calculator service now incorporates ARR rates €STR for the euro and TONAR for the Japanese yen, and the RFR rate SORA for the Singapore dollar.

The calculator service is available through Finastra’s FusionFabric.cloud open innovation platform and can be integrated with a bank’s existing lending systems. The use of Open APIs facilitates integration with legacy systems that have not been prepared for the LIBOR transition and are unable to perform complex ARR calculations. The Finastra calculated ARR rates can be directly consumed by these legacy applications, avoiding the need for complex and costly system changes.

Railpen Chooses FINBOURNE LUSID to Provide IBOR

Railpen, a large UK pension fund, has chosen FINBOURNE’s cloud-based investment data management platform LUSID as its Investment Book of Record (IBOR). The decision forms a pillar in Railpen’s data management strategy as it continues to enrich in-house operations, adding new and future-proof capabilities across the middle and back office. Railpen made a market review for an independent IBOR that could open access to data across the organisation before selecting the LUSID platform as its auditable, real-time, investment data repository. LUSID will support Railpen’s multi-asset portfolios with standardised data and a timely, aggregated view of positions and exposure.