Fitch Ratings expects idiosyncratic governance weaknesses to weigh on ratings more often than previously as the tolerance of governance failures from a wide range of stakeholders (e.g. authorities, investors, creditors, customers and employees) declines. It is likely that investors’ growing focus on ESG topics and better ESG-related disclosure will mean that governance failures will have…
Tag: risk
Samantha Ross: The Role of Accounting and Auditing in Addressing Climate Change
U.S. federal securities laws are founded on the idea that transparency promotes well-functioning capital markets. This is particularly true when it comes to the urgent goal of reducing global greenhouse gas emissions to prevent the devastating impacts of climate change. For companies, those impacts include both physical risks, including the risk that facilities will be…
The Shareholder Commons Announces Withdrawal of Shareholder Proposal after Yum! Brands Commits to Disclose Systemic Costs of Antibiotic Use
The Shareholder Commons announced today that Yum! Brands (NYSE: YUM, the “Company”) has agreed to provide comprehensive reporting on the systemic effects of the use of antibiotics in its supply chain by the end of 2021. Paul Rissman, a long-time shareholder of the Company, worked with The Shareholder Commons, a non-profit organization that seeks to…
ESG at Wellington Management Company
An interview with Carolina San Martin, Hillary Flynn and Chris Goolgasian, members of the ESG Research and Climate Research teams at Wellington Management Company. Our ESG integration philosophy comes down to two core beliefs that act as our North Star. First is a belief that material E, S, and G issues are strategic business issues…
Paper: ESG Shareholder Engagement and Downside Risk
A new paper from Andreas G.F. Hoepner, Ioannis Oikonomou, Zacharias Sautner, Laura T. Starks, and Xiao Y. Zhou asks “whether engagement on environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues can benefit shareholders by reducing firms’ downside risk, measured using the lower partial moment and value at risk. Using a proprietary database, we provide evidence supporting this hypothesis….
Will the Banks Collapse? – The Atlantic
A very important piece by Frank Partnoy: American citizens are well aware of the toll [the pandemic] has taken on the economy: broken supply chains, record unemployment, failing small businesses. All of these factors are serious and could mire the United States in a deep, prolonged recession. But there’s another threat to the economy, too….
ESG Outperformance Due to Supply Chain Risk Management
Why have companies with good ESG ratings outperformed in the recent crisis? That is a question many investors are asking now. And on Wednesday Tensie Whelan of NYU Stern Center for Sustainable Business had an interesting new answer to offer: supply chains. Speaking with Paul Polman (head of Imagine), Chris Pinney (founder of High Meadows)…
Has ESG Gone Mainstream?
A new report from Ethical Corporation argues that ESG’s rapidly increasing acceptance is based on understanding that it is about managing risk. “ESG will become much more a part of mainstream investing over the next ten years,” says Carlo Funk, EMEA head of ESG strategy at State Street Global Advisors. “It will move from being…
Warren calls on big U.S. banks for steps on climate risk | Article [AMP] | Reuters
U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren, a contender for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination, is asking the biggest U.S. banks for details on their assessments of and preparations for risks related to global warming. “To protect themselves and the economy from climate-driven catastrophes, large financial institutions must act quickly to address risks,” Warren, a frequent critic of…
Good Business: The Year Ahead in Sustainable Finance – Bloomberg
Sustainable investment in 2020: Energy stocks just haven’t kept up with the broader market, which could push investors to look more closely at whether fossil fuels are really a worthwhile investments. Peak emissions aren’t here yet, but they may be close. “Decarbonization is certainly dominating the conversation,” says Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Eric Kane. A Stanford University study says phasing out…
ValueEdge Advisors 