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Direct correlation between RepRisk ESG data and total shareholder return found

Mathias Fürer

Corporate Communications Manager

June 22, 2022, Zurich, Switzerland

Moody’s Analytics research finds a direct correlation between RepRisk ESG risk incident data and total shareholder return

# The research demonstrates the materiality of RepRisk data for financial decision-makers


Moody’s Analytics leveraged RepRisk ESG risk data for two new research studies that found companies that develop responsible ESG practices and strive to mitigate ESG risks experience fewer noteworthy ESG risk incidents and better shareholder returns.

Moody’s analyzed more than 3,000 public companies from 2013 to 2019, finding that a weak ESG risk management culture is among the top characteristics of companies that experience more ESG risk incidents. As ESG risk incidents can result in significant reputational, compliance, and financial impacts, the research evidenced that a firm’s ESG risk management policies and actions, and the ESG scores that measure them, contain financially material information for investors.

Other key findings include:

  • Moderate to severe ESG events resulted in an average -4% 12-month excess equity return, which represents a loss of $292 million for a typical-sized firm in the study
  • Introducing 'substantial' ESG policies will reduce the number of RepRisk incidents a $100 billion company is subject to by 18%
  • 'Substantial' ESG policies will reduce the incidents and controversy numbers by 31%. The estimated reeduction is greater for large companies

RepRisk has the world’s largest database on ESG risks, powered by a consistent, transparent, and rules-based methodology that spans 17 years – the longest data time series in the industry. RepRisk’s ESG risk data is ideal for financial decision-makers who wish to leverage historical ESG risk incident data for back-testing, quantitative analysis, and portfolio construction. Moody’s research findings underscore the materiality of RepRisk data and how it can be leveraged in futurelooking financial and investment analysis and decision-making.

Learn more about the research studies, Measuring Persistence in ESG Risk Management Culture and The Business Impact of ESG Performance:

https://www.moodysanalytics.com/whitepapers/pa/2022/stronger-esg-risk-mitigation-practices-linked-to-better-shareholder-returns


About RepRisk

Founded in 1998 and headquartered in Switzerland, RepRisk is a global technology company that provides transparency on business conduct risks like deforestation, human rights abuses, and corruption. RepRisk enables efficient decision-making for clients and supports alpha generation and value preservation for their organization, investments, and business interests. RepRisk is trusted by 80+ of the world’s leading banks, 17 of the 25 largest investment managers, corporates, and the world’s largest sovereign wealth funds for their due diligence processes. RepRisk uses human curation and cutting-edge artificial intelligence to generate the world’s most comprehensive business conduct and biodiversity risk datasets on public and private companies, real assets, and countries.

Visit us at www.reprisk.com.

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