(A survey conducted by digital client engagement vendor Hearsay Systems, which focuses on financial services markets, has revealed that “principles-based messaging” is achieving the highest engagement rates for financial services firms, particularly financial advisors and agents. Such messaging refers to Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) criteria, and efforts to involve more women and more diversity… Read More >>
CFTC Hopes Carbon Offsets Forum Will Spur Innovation
Rostin Behnam, the chair of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), is hoping to jumpstart industry interest in carbon offsets via the regulator’s first-ever Voluntary Carbon Convening, slated for June 2 via the CFTC’s headquarters in Washington, D.C. “As climate change is a collective action problem, I believe a joint effort between the CFTC and… Read More >>
State Pensions Face Anti-ESG Backlash
Now that Earth Day has come and gone again, it might be an appropriate time to consider the right-wing conservative backlash against public pension funds and their ESG investing. “ESG,” as FTF News readers know, stands for “Environmental, Social, and Governance.” ESG is meant to ensure that boardrooms and shareholders consider factors beyond simple fluctuations… Read More >>
Is ESG Blurring Too Many Lines?
ESG-based investing efforts and their related operational adjustments are getting real for many securities firms. And the ESG push is beginning to blur many lines that many never questioned before. For those who have not been following ESG too closely, the Investopedia website offers a succinct definition: “Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) criteria are a… Read More >>
WFE Paper Spotlights Human Rights Aspects of ESG
The World Federation of Exchanges (WFE), an industry group for securities exchanges and central counterparty clearing houses (CCPs), has published a briefing paper that focuses on human rights protections and spotlights the need for definitions of “responsible business” and human rights protections — key social aspects of ESG investing. The paper points out that “while… Read More >>
Xignite Launches an ESG API & Other News
Xignite Partners with ESG Book A vendor of market data application programming interfaces (APIs), Xignite has launched an API for Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) data that accesses the real-time sustainability dataset of ESG Book, a data vendor partnering with Xignite. The XigniteGlobalESG API encompasses “public companies domiciled in North America, EMEA, APAC, and Latin… Read More >>
CalSTRS to Apply Proxy-Voting Powers to ESG Goals
CalSTRS, the influential California State Teachers’ Retirement System that tallies $318.1 billion in assets under management (as of February 28, 2022), is putting its money where its values are. The public pension fund has declared that it will be using its proxy voting power to make sure that the companies it invests in actually live… Read More >>
SEC Advances Climate Risk Disclosure Rules
As many expected it would, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is pushing for new rules that will require public companies to report more details about the climate-related risks that could “have a material impact on their business, results of operations, or financial condition.” But not everyone is on board with this move, including a… Read More >>
BNP Paribas to Add 1,000 More Women in IT
On International Women’s Rights Day, March 8, a banking giant made a surprising announcement, and challenged itself to do better: “The BNP Paribas Group has set itself an ambitious target: to have 1,000 more women in our IT professions by the end of 2024, through both internal and external recruitment.” While the Women’s Rights Day… Read More >>
SS&C Bolsters Its Open Protocol Service & Other Briefs
SS&C Adds ESG & Digital Asset Exposure Reporting Support The Open Protocol risk reporting service of SS&C Technologies has been improved to include digital asset and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) exposures, a step that brings the service into compliance with the ESG and digital assets reporting requirements of the Standards Board of Alternative… Read More >>
