BNY Mellon adds new ESG ratings to Securities Lending

By Edlyn Cardoza

BNY Mellon announced new enhancements to its securities finance platform to help clients analyse their agency securities lending program alongside their sustainability goals. The announcement comes as stakeholder demands for increased transparency in connection with environmental, social and governance (ESG) investing are growing for firms across the globe.

Delivered through an interactive dashboard, clients can apply ESG scores based on third-party data across their lendable portfolio, collateral, and cash investments to help them evaluate alignment with their individual ESG goals. As the world’s most prominent agent lender with access to more than $4.3 trillion in lendable assets, this new capability represents the first in a series of ESG enhancements BNY Mellon plans to make to its platform.

“Transparency is critical to the evolution of the ESG investing landscape, as well as the management of ESG risks and regulatory compliance,” said Ina Budh-Raja, EMEA Head of Securities Finance Product & Strategy and Global Head of Markets ESG at BNY Mellon. “BNY Mellon is committed to providing clients with next-generation solutions and insights designed to help enable alignment with their ESG goals.”

The new dashboard leverages MSCI ESG Research’s ESG Ratings, assigning scores to securities across three distinct pillars: environmental, social and governance, that can be applied to a client’s non-cash collateral and cash reinvestment, including both outright purchases and repo collateral.

The resulting output allows clients to quickly and easily analyse how their portfolio, the collateral they receive, and the investments they make align with their environmental, social and governance goals and values. The addition of this Securities Finance enhancement builds upon the previously established ESG tools across the BNY Mellon financing and liquidity ecosystem.

IBS Intelligence reported that BNY Mellon had entered into a multi-year licensing agreement to adopt the Xceptor tax platform. BNY Mellon is transforming the delivery of its extensive tax service offering by adopting Xceptor’s technology. The phased implementation of Xceptor’s end-to-end tax platform will help to reduce tax risk by providing transparency and efficiency in an ever-evolving tax regulatory landscape.