Northern Trust and EDS to Strengthen ESG Investment Data Solutions
Northern Trust and Equity Data Science, Inc. announced the launch of an ESG workflow solution that will make it easier for investors to access ESG information and share it. The new ESG digitalised data aggregation tool uses data science to improve transparency and efficiency while making it easier for investment teams to work together.
Investors face a problem because there aren't any clear standards for ESG data that are accepted by the business world. As the financial services industry continues to change, the ESG workflow solution can integrate ESG data and analysis directly into the investing process by combining inputs from many different data providers and types.
Paul Fahey, Head of Investment Data Science at Northern Trust, said:
"We know that implementing ESG is a top concern for our clients, so EDS and Northern Trust have come together to launch our new ESG workflow solution to give our clients a single source for their data." This enables more efficiency and transparency for investment teams and helps clients streamline their data and reporting processes.”
The ESG workflow solution lets investment teams analyse and measure how decisions are made throughout the lifecycle of an investment and quickly share and evaluate new information as it comes in. Specific features include:
Automated capture of ESG data from market and specialist vendors, including unstructured data sets that identify potential ESG issues.
Seamless integration of vended data elements (e.g., notes, commentary) within the system allows access to all ESG-related data in a single view.
Workflow tools that digitise analysts’ processes around gathering, reviewing, and annotating ESG scores and events, as well as decision points throughout the investment process.
Analytics and dashboards that allow analysts and portfolio managers to interrogate, visualise, compare, and decompose ESG scores from major vendors for deeper insights into each company’s true ESG profile.
Greg McCall, President of Equity Data Science, said:
"The ESG workflow solution helps clients tackle several issues brought on by the complexities of ESG data without altering their processes. This allows investment teams to modernise and integrate their ESG data across the entire investment lifecycle, empowering them to further harness their ESG data.”
According to global investment manager Sanders Capital LLC, “Northern Trust and EDS brought real insight into how digitisation could drive value. We collaborated to turn one of our most time-consuming functions into a best practice model for our overall investment process."
Source: Northern Trust
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