Broadridge Launches Web-based ESG Performance Dashboard

FinTech Broadridge Financial Solutions has unveiled its ESG Performance Dashboard, which offers companies a view of their sustainability and governance performance. The rankings and ratings are based on more than 300 million data points drawn from 800-plus sources, the New York-company said. The web-located dashboard will show firms where they can make improvements to their ESG records, it added. An extension also enables clients to compare their scores over the past five years.

IBA Upgrades Aviation Carbon Tracking, Analysis Product

Aviation data and advisory firm IBA has upgraded its Carbon Emissions Calculator to help airlines report and analyse their fleets’ carbon footprints. The service is accessible through the UK-based company’s expanded InsightIQ product. IBA said the improvements had been made after it consulted more than 100 companies following the product’s launch in March. For investors, the new-look InsightIQ will also offer information on companies’ investments for ESG compliance.

SimCorp Adds Investment Accounting as a Service

SimCorp, a provider of Software-as-a-Service investment management solutions, has added Investment Accounting as a Service in response to increased demand from buy-side clients to outsource back-office functions.

The multi-asset class service is based on the SimCorp Dimension platform and is part of the company’s drive to become a technology-enabled services company. It will deliver timely, accurate and transparent multi-jurisdictional and regulatory compliant accounting, analytics and reporting, as well as an advisory overlay. It also provides interoperability and validates post-trade data, performs reconciliations, and ensures international accounting standards compliance.

KB Asset Management Singapore Selects SS&C to Power Operations

KB Asset Management Singapore, the asset management arm of Korea’s KB Financial Group, has selected SS&C Technologies’ front-to-back office solution for its operations. The solution includes SS&C’s fund administration and middle-office services, and integrates the Eze Investment Suite for order and portfolio management, compliance, and client reporting. The platform has been implemented to simplify operations across the asset managers’ portfolio that includes equities, contracts for difference, futures, FX and long/short strategies.

ASEAN Draws Up First ESG Taxonomy Draft

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has published its first draft taxonomy for ESG reporting, saying the move was necessary as many of its member states were on the climate-risk frontline. The Jakarta, Indonesia-headquartered trade bloc said the proposal would introduce “a common language across ASEAN for financing sustainable economic activities”. A region-wide framework would have four environmental objectives and two “essential criteria” for the economy. The Version 1 iteration released on Wednesday also provides for an overlay that can be tweaked to suit individual member states. This initially focuses on six material sectors including agriculture, power supply, manufacturing and transportation.

EFRAG Names 71 Experts to Create Standards Proposals

The body charged with drafting sustainability reporting standards for the European Union’s regulators has put in place a team of 71 experts to begin the process. The European Financial Reporting Advisory Group (EFRAG) appointed experts from finance, academia, industry, NGOs and the small business sector. They will sit on 11 Expert Working Groups that have been tasked with hammering out a set of standards that can provide the underpinnings of the union’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive. EFRAG put out a call for potential members in August and said it had chosen the 71 from “very large number of high quality applications”.

Industry Collaboration Adds LEI Datasets to Amazon Sustainability Data Initiative

A collaboration between the Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation (GLEIF), OS-Climate and Amazon has resulted in GLEIF’s real-time Legal Entity Identifier (LEI) datasets being made publicly available for the first time in the cloud via Amazon’s Sustainability Data Initiative (ASDI) data catalog. The move was driven by OS-Climate to allow easier integration of LEI data with its own datasets that support development of open data and open source analytics for climate risk management and climate aligned finance and investment. ASDI’s hosting capabilities simplify programmatic access to the LEI data, which is ingested by OS-Climate’s Data Commons platform, essentially an architecture for building, sharing, and running data and analytics services to evaluate climate finance risks and opportunities.

Moody’s Acquisition of Bogard Expands KYC Coverage for Politically Exposed Persons

Moody’s has acquired Bogard AB, a provider of data and information on politically exposed persons (PEPs) in the Nordic region. The acquisition advances Moody’s ability to help customers perform Know Your Customer (KYC) screening and research to address financial crime. Bogard covers over 17,000 PEPs, relatives, and close associates across Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and Finland. Moody’s will integrate Bogard into its KYC business within Moody’s Analytics, and combine Bogard’s data with its existing PEP, sanction, and adverse media data. The transaction builds on Moody’s previous investments in KYC and anti-money laundering (AML) capabilities, and augments its Orbis company database and Grid database of adverse news, sanctions, and PEPs.

IBA Releases US Dollar SOFR ICE Swap Rate for Use as a Benchmark

Intercontinental Exchange’s (ICE) ICE Benchmark Administration (IBA) business has released its US dollar SOFR ICE Swap Rate for use as a benchmark in financial contracts and financial instruments by licensees. The release follows the successful publication of US dollar SOFR ICE Swap Rate settings on an indicative, ‘Beta’ basis since October 1, 2021, and is expected to support the US dollar non-linear derivatives market in its ongoing transition to SOFR. The US dollar SOFR ICE Swap Rate settings are available for the same tenors and published at the same  time as the current US dollar LIBOR ‘1100’ ICE Swap Rate benchmark.

CGS Adds Sustainability Categorisation to Bonds

CUSIP Global Services (CGS) has incorporated ESG indicators for US corporate and municipal bonds within its data feeds. The unit of S&P Global now provides classifications of issuances according to their sustainability attributes. The new feed uses International Capital Market Association (ICMA) and Climate Bonds Initiative methodologies to identify the securities as green, social or sustainable bonds. Roger Fahy, Vice President and Chief Operating Officer at CGS, said the new data field was created because the company had been approached by investor clients keen to know how to differentiate between green issuance and “vanilla” debt. “We see there is a need to be able to logically categorise new offerings separate from the general population of debt,” Fahy told A-Team ESG Insight.