Asset managers, pensions and endowments will soon be able to screen their investments more easily for environmental, social and governance risks. The development is thanks to State Street Corp., which is launching a new set of analytical tools aimed at capitalizing on the appetite for responsible investing. Many firms have made similar strides to help investors tackle ESG exposure, but few can harness as much data as State Street, whose custody business safeguards $29 trillion. ...
Custody giant State Street is offering asset management and pension fund clients with new tools to search their portfolios for environmental, social and governance (ESG) risks, leveraging its access to the $8.7trn of assets it safeguards - 12-15% of the global total - to offer analytics that cash in on the growing demand for ESG investment products. It has also been in talks with analytics firms, including MSCI and TruValue Labs, to license their ESG data. The move follows the company's creation of several ESG-focused exchange-traded funds (ETFs). The US market for ESG investments has grown 33% to $29tn since 2014.