GLEIF Names Certizen Technology as China’s Second LEI Validation Agent

The Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation (GLEIF) has named Certizen Technology, a Hong Kong-based provider of digital identity and digital certificate solutions, as the latest organisation approved as a Validation Agent in the Global Legal Entity Identifier (LEI) System.

With the support of GLEIF and the People’s Bank of China, Certizen will use the LEI to enrich its product and service offerings across multiple market sectors to further advance ‘opening up’ and strengthen support for free trade and cross-border business interactions. This includes using the data elements of the LEI in conjunction with digital certificates to integrate and associate an organisation’s data with the identity of individuals acting on its behalf. This will contribute to increased market transparency, facilitate trusted cross-border trade, and support global regulatory alignment.

Eva Chan, CEO of Certizen Technology, comments: “Obtaining Validation Agent status is a step forward in our vision to become a leader in corporate identity management. We are committed to using the capabilities of the LEI to enable secure and trustworthy digital interactions across borders, helping realise the full potential of efforts to support opening up and promote increased international recognition of local enterprises.”

Telefónica Goes Live with Alveo Prime Market Data Solution

Telefónica, a global telecommunications company, has gone live on Alveo’s Prime market data solution for its corporate treasury and financial division data management. The company’s sophisticated corporate treasury function, financial transactions and processes require accurate and timely market data for a wide range of purposes including hedge accounting, funding needs, financial reporting, validation and valuation of financial instruments.

Manuel Carreras Ferrer, transformation and change management manager at Telefónica, says: “We needed a new financial data repository for the firm. We use commercial data providers and different complex spreadsheets and needed to streamline the supply of market data into different business applications. Alveo’s market data solution helped us with a centralised data repository for all treasury-required FX and interest rate data, improved our operational efficiency and lowered our total cost of ownership.”

Canoe Intelligence Solution Offers Access to Asset-Level Data of Alternative Investments

Canoe Intelligence, a technology provider to the alternatives industry, has announced the commercial launch of Canoe Asset Data, a solution to the challenges of accessing and using complete, timely, and accurate asset-level data. The offering delves deep into the underlying holdings of alternative investments, leveraging the document collection, tracking, extraction, and organisation technology developed by the company, and is designed to solve investment use cases such as exposure analysis, portfolio analysis, and due diligence, while alleviating the operational challenges of accessing this granular data.

Canoe Asset Data is the inaugural product release from the Canoe Data Innovation Hub, an initiative dedicated to driving innovation, transformation, and transparency in the alternative investment markets, and was developed in collaboration with 13 clients. Aman Soni, vice president of data strategy at Canoe, comments: “Before its commercial launch, Canoe Asset Data saw strong adoption from its design partners, which speaks volumes about the end product.”

Bloomberg ESG Data Supports Hong Kong Greenhouse Gas Emissions Elimination Tool

Bloomberg ESG data is supporting development of the recently released greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions estimation tool of Hong Kong’s Green and Sustainable Finance Cross-Agency Steering Group (Steering Group) and the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST). The tool is part of key initiatives to facilitate sustainability reporting by corporates and financial institutions in Hong Kong led by the Steering Group, which is co-chaired by the Securities & Futures Commission of Hong Kong and the Hong Kong Monetary Authority.

The tool deploys a regression model using data from listed companies and small- and medium-sized enterprises to represent corporate energy consumption and associated Scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions and enables financial institutions to estimate the GHG emissions of their investees or borrowers in their portfolios, which is important where data from underlying companies is limited. The energy consumption data and GHG emissions data of Hong Kong listed companies used for the model is procured from Bloomberg.

SEC Approves Watered-Down Climate Reporting Rules

American listed companies will not have to report on their Scope 3 emissions in rules that will, however, require them for the first time to disclose other climate data.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) yesterday approved measures that would bind corporates into presenting data on the climate risks they face, their plans to mitigate them and, for some, their own greenhouse gas emissions. The aim of the rules is to present investors with consistent and comparable data on which to make portfolio and risk management decisions, the SEC said.

“Our federal securities laws lay out a basic bargain. Investors get to decide which risks they want to take so long as companies raising money from the public make what President Franklin Roosevelt called ‘complete and truthful disclosure’,” SEC chair Gary Gensler said. “These final rules build on past requirements by mandating material climate risk disclosures by public companies and in public offerings.”

The Federal rules are the first of their kind in the US but fall well short of requirements under the European Union’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD). While they have been long in the making, SEC commissioners eventually presented a far more diluted set of measures than had been initially proposed in March 2022, including the declaration of emissions from supply and distribution chains.

Divided Reception

The SEC also watered down reporting requirements on Scope 1 and 2 emissions, those caused directly by companies’ own operations and energy usage. Firms will only be expected to make such disclosures if they are not already obliged to do so in other jurisdictions.

The announcement received a divided reception. Sustainable markets campaigner Ceres said the rules “represent a major victory for transparency in capital markets” but said it “will continue to advocate for voluntary and mandatory disclosures of a company’s full scope of emissions”.

The watering down of the initial proposals comes amid a growing anti-ESG movement in US. Since Gensler first proposed a climate reporting bill, opponents have rallied to demonise the ESG project. Banks and institutions have also lobbied against tough measures.

Many US state leaders have instigated bans on public funds being invested in sustainable markets and conservative movements have put pressure on institutions to row back on their ESG strategies.

Despite the SEC’s lowering of disclosure obligations, a coalition of states has already said it will oppose the measures. The SEC has said in response it will “vigorously defend the disclosures” in court.

CCData Partners ANNA and DTIF to Ease Adoption of Digital Token Identifier

CCData, an FCA authorised benchmark administrator and provider of digital asset data and index solutions, has made a strategic partnership with the Association of National Numbering Agencies (ANNA) and the Digital Token Identifier Foundation (DTIF) to introduce Digital Token Identifiers (DTIs) and International Securities Identification Numbers (ISINs) into its Asset Metadata product.

The integration of the identifiers means stakeholders in both parties can access metadata for more than 7,000 digital assets and respective ISO identifiers via CCData’s REST API. This should enhance transparency in the digital asset market by distinguishing between the ISIN-identified asset itself and its blockchain-based implementation identified by the DTI.

Microsoft Azure Marketplace Adds Xceptor Data Automation Solutions

Xceptor, an automation platform for financial markets, has moved into the Microsoft Azure Marketplace where clients, partners, and prospects can quickly identify Xceptor solutions and services to meet their data automation needs and benefits from a built in streamlined procurement and payment process. Xceptor offers its clients and prospects the option to either select pre-packaged solutions or collaborate on tailored options that are then integrated via Azure Marketplace.

“Joining forces with Microsoft Azure Marketplace brings us closer to our clients who want convenient, accessible tools to manage their intricate data management and automation needs. This platform simplifies the purchasing process and expedites onboarding,” says Josh Monroe, chief revenue officer at Xceptor.

ICE Benchmark Administration Offers Update on Cessation of Final LIBOR Settings

Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) has confirmed that ICE Benchmark Administration (IBA), the FCA authorised and regulated administrator of LIBOR, has provided an update on the cessation of sterling LIBOR.

In line with feedback from its June 2022 consultation and previous statements, the FCA has used its powers under UK Benchmarks Regulation (UK BMR) to require IBA to publish the 3-Month sterling LIBOR setting using an unrepresentative synthetic methodology until 28 March 2024. The FCA has stated that it has no intention to require publication beyond then and that this setting will cease after publication on that date.

IBA is also required by the FCA to continue to publish the 1-, 3- and 6-Month synthetic US dollar LIBOR settings. The FCA has stated that it intends to require IBA to publish these settings until 30 September 2024, but not beyond that date, when it expects publication to cease.

All other LIBOR settings have ceased to be published.

Nature-linked Indexes Added to S&P Sustainability Benchmarks

S&P Dow Jones Indices has added another set of ESG-themed benchmarks to its roster, this time providing a gauge for nature-focused investors.

The S&P 500 Biodiversity Index and the S&P Global LargeMidCap Biodiversity Index are intended to provide broad views of the impacts companies are having on nature and vice versa.

The new suite follows the creation of a set of indexes that track corporate alignment with United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). The nature-linked indexes are calibrated to the COP15 Montreal biodiversity protection targets and built on S&P’s nature, biodiversity and carbon datasets as well as its SDG metrics.

“Research shows that 85 per cent of the world’s largest companies have a significant dependency on nature and biodiversity. This makes access to nature- and biodiversity-focused data, insights, and analytics essential in the support of market participants understanding, managing, and mitigating exposure of nature-related risks and impacts,” said Steven Bullock, global head of research and methodology at S&P Global Sustainable1, S&P’s ESG business unit.

Investors See Relevance in Double Materiality Ratings: ISS ESG Survey

Institutional investors believe that ESG ratings built on a double materiality methodology are “very relevant” to them, according to an ISS ESG survey of client needs.

The analysis also found that investors consider the reporting standards of International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB), UN Global Compact (UNGC) and the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) most relevant to their needs.

The findings were contained in the company’s ESG Corporate Rating Survey, in which it sought to gauge client responses to the methodologies it uses to create its sustainability research.

The survey results, which will be discussed in a webinar next month, also show that investors’ most relevant ESG theme is addressing climate change.