French asset servicer BNP Paribas Securities Services (BNPP SS) has announced an alliance with sustainability data provider Clarity AI in another example of the growing links between asset management service providers and ESG data firms.
The agreement will give users of the Manaos platform, BNPP SS’s fintech subsidiary, access to Clarity AI’s library of sustainability data which covers 200,000 investment funds.
The alliance is the first step in what Manaos CEO, Patrice Hiddinga, describes as its Open ESG plan. The idea is that the Manaos platform will recruit a number of ESG data providers and its user base of institutional investors will access the data to assess the sustainability impact of their portfolios or else create their own ESG reporting solutions.
Patrick Colle, general manager of BNPSS, said the move is designed to help clients address “the critical issue of investment data availability and quality and enabling them to work easily and securely with a range of fintechs”.
The alliance comes just weeks after the introduction of the EU’s Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR) which requires fund managers to disclose ESG risks within their portfolios for the first time.
The SFDR’s arrival has led to a number of other tie-ups between fintechs and ESG data providers. Earlier in March, financial software company Linedata collaborated with Arabesque S-Ray to integrate ESG data assets directly into its software.
There has also been ongoing consolidation in the ESG ratings space over the last 18 months with major rating agencies acquiring sustainability specialists, such as Morningstar’s purchase of Sustainalytics in April 2020.
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