Verdantix Benchmarks Forty-Five Climate and ESG Solutions for Financial Markets

LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--To support the ESG and climate strategies of buy-side financial institutions, independent research firm Verdantix has produced a world first benchmark of 45 ESG and climate solution providers. The global market for climate and ESG financial data, analytics and indexes is expanding at breakneck speed. Reflecting the growth in ESG ETFs, the boom in sustainable bonds and tougher scrutiny of sustainable finance products, buy-side financial institutions increasingly need investment-grade climate and ESG data and analytics. Financial solution providers in the Verdantix report include Arabesque, CDP, Clarity AI, Covalence, FactSet, Fitch, GRESB, ISS, Moody’s, MSCI, RepRisk, RIMES and Sustainalytics.

“There is a phenomenal range of innovation taking place in the market for financial climate and ESG solutions” commented Verdantix Industry Analyst and author of the report Sam Renshaw. “Buy-side financial institutions are pushing tech, index and analytics providers to deliver timely, auditable, machine-readable, investment-grade ESG and climate data. That’s driving a wave of investment to produce the next generation of financial markets ESG solutions.”

Key findings from the Verdantix report “Smart Innovators: Climate & ESG Financial Markets Solutions”:

• Bloomberg, CSRHub, FactSet, FTSE Russell, MSCI, Refinitiv and Sustainalytics stand out as the market leading ESG data product and API providers
• RepRisk offers the strongest ESG sentiment monitoring solution with convincing alternatives from alva, Matter, Refinitiv and Truvalue Labs
• ESG index offerings are led by FTSE Russell, MSCI, S&P Global and STOXX
• Buy-side institutions can access ESG scores for equity decisions from 23 providers with the strongest offerings from Bloomberg, FactSet, MSCI, Refinitiv, S&P Global and Sustainalytics
• Climate change risk analysis for physical assets is poorly served with just 8 vendors offering a convincing capability led by Four Twenty Seven, Jupiter Intelligence and The Climate Service

“For two decades, financial market participants have asked ‘Why should I include climate change and ESG in my decisions?’” commented Kim Knickle, the Verdantix ESG & Sustainability Research Director. “Our study reveals that investors now ask ‘How can I include climate and ESG factors in financial models and investment decisions?’ Over the next five years, investors will integrate ESG data into all equity and debt decisions which will create a multi-billion dollar market for climate and ESG financial data, software and analytics.”