Even the Big 3 Credit rating agencies are into ESG now

You might know the Big 3 credit rating agencies – Moody’s, S&P and Fitch – best for their ratings of government bonds, but they’re also in growing cohort of companies attempting to measure ESG. Especially now, as the amount of money going into ESG skyrockets.

Moody’s latest ESG offerings

Moody’s formally launched an ESG product in September last year and last month published its own stakeholder sustainability report the first time ever.

Earlier this week it launched a tool, the ESG Score Predictor, to generate real-time predicted ESG scores for SMEs worldwide.

It intends to help SMEs monitor ESG risk across their supply chains, and for financial institutions, it provides quantitative data for portfolio and risk management.

“The ESG Score Predictor adds a unique, integral component to our comprehensive suite of cutting-edge solutions to help investors and companies leave no stone unturned when identifying and analysing ESG risks and opportunities,” said Andrea Blackman, Moody’s global head of ESG solutions.

Moodys says its customers will be able to access 140 million company ESG scores on its Orbis, Producement Catalyst and Credit Catalyst platforms and can leverage its ESG Score Predictor models in conjunction with their own in-house data.

Fitch and S&P

Fitch has launched a number ESG products in the past year. One is a data feed (as opposed to a written report) that allows market participants to analyse credit risk as it relates to ESG factors.

Another is launching ESG Vulnerability Scores, judging creditworthiness to ESG-driven risks up to 2050 and providing a report outlining these risks.

S&P has, like Moody’s, launched an ESG division and steps it has taken include placing ESG scores on companies.

Firms are rated between 0 and 100 based on their performance, as judged by over 1,000 data points.

S&P also has an ESG product finger and now publishes a Global Sustainability Yearbook which it claims to be one of the world’s most comprehensive publications with analysis on corporate sustainability performance.