Latest news for ESG in private banking

Suntera Global has announced the purchase of Carey commercial (Carey), a boutique fund, corporate, and private wealth services provider, as the business seeks to gain scale in a key growth sector.

This acquisition is subject to regulatory approval.

Carey presently offers a comprehensive variety of professional, administrative, and accounting services to a prominent portfolio of fund managers, big institutions, UHNWs, and family offices all over the world.

It has over 45 years history in the industry with a staff of 80 professionals.

Currently, the Guernsey service from Suntera is complemented and improved by Carey’s corporate and private wealth offering.
A wide range of fund services are offered by Carey’s quickly expanding fund administration division, such as a full-service fund administration, directorship services, listing services, investor services, company secretarial and corporate governance, risk and compliance services, and international reporting (FATCA & CRS).

Guernsey is also now a new tier one fund jurisdiction for the company.  

David Hudson, group CEO, Suntera Global, said: “The addition of Carey, a high-quality business with an impressive, closely aligned team and a strong track record across all three divisions, to our strategically important and fast-growing Guernsey business is a great milestone.

“This acquisition forms part of our ongoing strategy of continuously developing our offering and capability to further enhance the services offered to our clients in each of our tier one jurisdictions.’’

Jim Gilligan, managing director, Carey, commented: “We are excited to be joining Suntera Global and the opportunity to continue our growth journey by being part of a successful global business which provides a wider range of services and jurisdictions to our clients.

“The culture of Suntera has been evident through our discussions and it was key for Carey to be part of a group with an aligned culture.  Suntera is also fully committed to high environmental, social and governance (ESG) standards, as are we, as well as adhering to the same ethics and responsible practices, which is the cornerstone of Carey.

“We look forward to working with David and the wider Suntera team.’’

Faith in sustainability is not strong as less than a fifth (19%) of people actually believe most businesses are committed to ESG strategies.

Furthermore, 30% believed ESG was just a marketing exercise or most companies and 22% didn’t know, according to data from GlobalData.

Based on GlobalData’s ESG Sentiment Polls Q4 2022, 32% of respondents stated that their company has an ESG strategy.
The majority of respondents (68%) were either unsure about having an ESG plan in place (34%), or had none at all (34%).
Regardless of how much emphasis is placed on sustainability and social responsibility, conviction in the efficacy of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) policies is declining.

According to GlobalData, a renowned data and analytics firm, this strategy raises worries about corporate operations’ long-term survival and underscores the need for organisations to recommit to their ESG aims.

Cyrus Mewawalla, head of thematic intelligence at GlobalData, comments: “The reluctance of many CEOs to fully engage with ESG can be attributed to the age-old view that it will hurt profits. However, our research suggests the opposite. Companies that embrace all three elements of ESG will outperform their peers. CEOs that are too slow to improve their company’s approach to sustainability will see an exodus of customers and a drop in profits far sooner than they ever imagined.”

In GlobalData’s most recent study, Global Environmental Trends by Sector, 2022 – Thematic Intelligence, climate change and related themes (such as heatwaves, emissions, deforestation, and water shortages) were prominent in 2022.
Financial institutions, industries, and governments have increased their efforts to line with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

This trend is likely to continue in 2023.

GlobalData’s ESG framework is an important management tool for assessing a company’s ESG performance.

This can help uncover variables that contribute to poor ESG outcomes and provide insights into strategies that can be implemented to improve the company’s ESG performance.

The ESG framework developed by GlobalData is an effective management tool for assessing a company’s ESG performance.

It can help identify the root reasons of poor ESG performance and provide direction on measures that can be implemented to improve the company’s ESG performance.

Mewawalla concludes: “As the world continues to grapple with climate change and other environmental challenges, the importance of ESG performance is only set to grow. The growing efforts of financial institutions, businesses, and governments to align with the UN’s SDGs demonstrate a growing recognition of the urgency of the challenge at hand. Companies that embrace this trend and take meaningful action to improve their ESG performance are likely to be the ones that thrive in the years to come.”

Finastra has started a collaboration with Alygne, a sustainability technology platform that provides personalised ESG alternative data, to assist asset managers worldwide in making more advanced ESG investments.

Financial institutions will be able to get ESG alternative data on private and public enterprises when Finastra’s Fusion Invest merges with Alygne’s sustainability technology platform.

A new connector combines Alygne’s data into Fusion Invest, allowing users to use the solution’s portfolio management tools to ascertain that portfolios reflect their ESG-related values.

“Making investments that coincide with corporate and customer values is front of mind for asset managers, but a lack of access to data and metrics makes this challenging,” said Fabien Féron, senior product manager, Fusion Invest at Finastra.

“In addition to using traditional financial metrics to monitor their portfolios, our customers can strengthen their decision-making process by accessing Alygne’s tailored ESG data through our solution. They can easily check the impact of trade simulations for both public and private markets.”

Fusion Invest is a platform that offers portfolio analytics and automated processes via a real-time Investment Book of Records and multi-GAAP accounting books of records (IBOR and ABOR).

The platform combines modern analytics, broad asset class coverage, and open technology via digital dashboarding and APIs to help financial institutions produce higher returns while lowering operational risks.

Alygne is a sustainability technology platform that makes ESG-related alternative data about private and public corporations accessible and visible.

It calculates ESG scores across various dimensions by reading global news, social media posts, and company statements and applying natural language processing and machine learning.
Alygne works in line with indicators found in global reporting systems such as the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR) and the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB).

Corinne Grillet, CEO at Alygne stated: “Through seamless integration with Fusion Invest, fund managers can use our data to make decisions based on financial and extra-financial criteria by adapting quickly to fast evolving market regulations and conditions. Retail and institutional clients can also use this data to promote ESG capabilities to their end customers.

“Our collaboration with Finastra combines best-of-breed portfolio management with advanced ESG analytics to support the global agenda of powering value-driven investments.”