Sustainalytics Introduces ESG Risk Ratings for Fixed Income and Private Equity

Morningstar Sustainalytics, a supplier of ESG ratings, data, and research, has announced the expansion of its ESG Risk Rating service to include fixed income and private equity, as well as listed Chinese.

According to the company, the announcement represents a roughly 30% increase in coverage to over 16,300 ESG Risk Ratings based on analyst research.

Sustainalytics' ESG Risk Ratings are intended to assess a company's exposure to industry-specific material ESG risks and the adequacy of its risk management. The provider's research and ratings are centred on corporate governance, material ESG concerns, and idiosyncratic issues, and its ratings methodology is supported by 20 material ESG issues with more than 300 indicators and 1,300 data points.

The company stated that the new coverage is being added in light of rising sustainable fund inflows in fixed income, improved ESG risk management in emerging markets, and expanding sustainability opportunities in private equity markets, while investors face challenges in obtaining consistent ESG data for asset classes other than public equity.

Director of ESG Research and Risk Products at Morningstar Sustainalytics, Laura Lutton, stated:

"The latest coverage expansion of Sustainalytics provides investors with more human insights to supplement the consistent data and research required to quantify financially meaningful ESG risk. The ESG Risk Ratings leverage the knowledge and expertise of our global research specialists in regards to the subtleties of ESG evaluation."