SIX partners with Sustainalytics to deliver ESG regulatory data

By Joy Dumasia

SIX, one of Europe’s leading financial information providers, is delighted to announce that Sustainalytics’ ESG data is now available for the broad customer base of SIX for them to comply with new EU sustainability regulations. Sustainalytics is the first third party specialist ESG data provider that SIX has onboarded to its distribution channels.

Sustainalytics is a Morningstar company and a leading global provider of ESG research, ratings and data. Based on their data, SIX provides new extensive ESG data sets for EU Taxonomy and the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR), which support its clients, such as banks and asset managers, with their disclosure obligations. The core of the SFDR data set is Principal Adverse Impact information. Additionally, SIX now offers Sustainalytics’ ESG Risk Ratings, which help firms to make more informed investment decisions and provide advice for end clients. These ESG Risk Ratings measure a company’s exposure to industry-specific material ESG risks and how well a company is managing those risks.

The SFDR and Taxonomy regulations are part of the EU Action Plan on Sustainable Finance, which serves to reorient capital flows towards sustainable investments, manage financial risks from climate change, environmental degradation and social issues, and foster transparency. It introduces a set of requirements for more transparent disclosure of sustainability metrics at the company or issuer and financial product level and aims to increase comparability of investments, as well as improve the prevention of greenwashing.

The strategy of SIX is to aggregate and distribute data from renowned ESG data providers around the globe and a large number of manufacturers of financial products, such as fund managers. SIX standardizes all ESG data, makes data from different providers comparable and machine-readable and ensures that it can be requested on a company or financial instrument levels, such as equities, bonds, or funds, contributing to easier data ingestion for the global customer base of SIX. Clients receive this data through the same delivery channels as other ESG, reference, corporate actions, regulatory and tax data from SIX. In addition, SIX offers its own ESG data sets – ESG Performance Data and ESG Indices in Switzerland and the Nordics and Gender Equality Indices in Switzerland and Spain.

Janine Hofer-Wittwer, CFA, Senior Product Manager, Financial Information, SIX, said: “Through this collaboration with Sustainalytics, we help to reduce the complexity of data sourcing. By providing data regarding investee companies, product manufacturers and financial instruments, SIX is the single reliable source covering our clients’ ESG data needs, which are becoming increasingly important as the regulatory landscape continues to develop.”

Tim Langer, Sustainalytics’ Director of Client Relations, said: “Sustainalytics is delighted to work with SIX and provide its clients with our high-quality ESG risk and compliance solutions. We look forward to advancing our relationship with SIX and supporting their clients’ ESG research and data needs, particularly as elements of the EU Action Plan continue to roll out.”