I-CV and RepRisk announce partnership to optimize the investment process
New ESG Radar platform includes independent ESG risk data for a 360-degree perspective to inform market-based decisions
Zürich, March 7, 2023 – I-CV, the only rating and credit research institute in Europe strictly committed to the investor-pay model and trusted advisor to a large institutional client base, in partnership with RepRisk, a leading ESG data science firm combining machine learning and human intelligence to identify ESG risks, has developed an in-house data management platform, ESG Radar, that provides investors with a unique 360-degree perspective on underlying ESG risks in their portfolio.
Market based 360-degree perspective
ESG Radar will aid investors as they move from intention to implementation of ESG investing by helping navigate the pitfalls of greenwashing, handling the ever-increasing amount of data, and enabling compliance with regulatory requirements. Instead of only leveraging data sourced from a company’s sustainability report, which has the potential to include bias, ESG Radar offers a 360-degree view, combining company-sourced data (inside-out) with RepRisk’s unique outside-in perspective; data collected and curated from 100,000+ media and stakeholder sources in 23 languages via AI, machine learning, and human intelligence.
ESG Radar contains ESG raw-data on more than 25,000 companies, enabling clients to compare and contrast statements and pledges made in company filings with real-life business conduct and risk incidents captured by RepRisk.
The development of ESG Radar was largely informed by conversations with I-CV’s institutional clients, through which it became apparent that existing ESG ratings had overly complex, opaque methodologies, and they did not keep pace with the speed of events affecting the market, nor the arising demands of regulatory requirements. I-CV’s ESG Radar addresses all three pitfalls in a user-friendly platform. The objective was to provide a one-stop shop for investors, with a discerning process that works consistently across all asset classes. The platform also includes customized solutions for calculating regulatory scores and evaluations (e.g. Swiss Climate Scores) over the entire portfolio.
Customisable and easy-to-use platform
The structured approach of ESG Radar was designed with two key functionalities in mind: the reduction of complexity and the enablement of forward-looking decision-making. “We are very excited to start our partnership with RepRisk. Through many years of working closely with our clients, large institutional investors, to incorporate ESG data in a meaningful way in the investment process we learned that the missing piece was always the forward-looking perspective,” said Rene Hermann, Head of Research at I-CV. “While markets reflect news and risk immediately, the available ESG ratings and scores do not. This leads to missed opportunities, forced selling at market lows, and an artificially restricted investment universe. ESG Radar addresses these deficiencies, alleviates the risk of herding, and enables investors to adapt a differentiated, market-based view and to critically challenge mainstream ESG applications.”
Further, in today’s world there is an abundance of data and information. Therefore, the art is no longer data collection but data selection and interpretation; what data is relevant and material to determine potential risks and the future trajectory of an asset. Many investors simply do not have the time or resources to sift through thousands of raw data points and to read detailed ESG reports. They need to be able to make well-informed decisions quickly to stay ahead of the market.
“RepRisk is in the business of reality checks,” said Jenny Nordby, head of business development at RepRisk. “We assess whether companies walk their talk when it comes to issues across the ESG spectrum, like corruption, adverse impacts on the environment, and human rights abuses, by looking beyond company self-disclosure. This partnership with I-CV is a direct extension of that work. We’re excited to work with I-CV to provide transparency on business conduct and enable timely, actionable data insights for proactive financial decision-making.”
Both RepRisk and I-CV have a high level of integrity to their operations due to being independent, and both companies have investors at the heart of their business models. The enhanced ESG Radar enables investors to turn their ESG intentions into actions and keep pace with regulatory requirements.
Media contact:
I-CV: Marco Köpfli, Senior Client Advisor, Tel. +41 43 204 19 19, koepfli@i-cv.ch
RepRisk: Gina Walser, Head of Marketing and Communications, media@reprisk.com
Independent Credit View AG (I-CV), founded in 2003 and domiciled in Switzerland, is the only credit rating and research boutique in Europe that strictly follows the investor-pay model. I-CV provides bond portfolio analysis, credit ratings and research of publicly traded and privately held debt instruments to institutional fixed-income investors. The company remains 100% employee-owned, free from conflicts of interest and restrictions. With the ESG Radar I-CV offers a platform designed for practitioners to integrate ESG across all asset classes. The team of seasoned investment experts combines many years of international experience in credit analysis of corporate, financial and sovereign issuers with state-of-the-art applications.
Founded in 1998 and headquartered in Switzerland, RepRisk is a pioneer in ESG data science that leverages the combination of AI and machine learning with human intelligence to systematically analyze public information and identify material ESG risks. RepRisk’s flagship product, the RepRisk ESG Risk Platform, is the world’s largest and most comprehensive due diligence database on ESG and business conduct risks, with expertise in 23 languages and coverage of 220,000+ public and private companies and 60,000+ infrastructure projects. For more than a decade, the world’s leading financial institutions and corporations have trusted RepRisk for due diligence and risk management across their operations, business relationships, and investments. Find out more on reprisk.com.