Screening of Extra-Financial Factors to Aid Funds in Investment Decision-Making
ROCKVILLE, MD (June 7, 2016) – Institutional Shareholder Services Inc. (ISS), a leading provider of corporate governance and responsible investment data, analytics, and solutions to the global financial community, today announced the launch of ISS Analytics, Powered by DataDesk.
The new technology will help institutions support investment decision-making using extra-financial data and analytics on thousands of publicly traded corporations across the globe. DataDesk, ISS’ proprietary platform that will undergird ISS Analytics, allows users to mine rich and varied datasets now covering responsible investment, corporate performance, board practices, director characteristics, shareholder rights, takeover defenses, factors related to the audit function, and others. Additional datasets will be added throughout the year.
Fundamentally, ISS Analytics is designed to aid portfolio managers and others in screening extra-financial governance and ESG factors to aid in portfolio company selection and monitoring.
“With the launch of ISS Analytics, the global investment community can now mine ISS’ rich governance and responsible investment content with ease and efficiency across either our broad coverage universe or at a portfolio level,” said Marija Kramer, ISS’ Head of Product Development. “Users will also be able to leverage a library of pre-defined screens covering trending topics in the ESG space for a coverage universe of their choosing.”
Today’s launch reflects the growing recognition that portfolio managers and analysts are increasingly incorporating governance data in their risk mitigation analysis and are looking to complement traditional research with information often overlooked by fundamental analytics.
“With the launch of ISS Analytics, our clients will now have far greater visibility and insight into extra-financial risks and opportunities,” said ISS Chief Operating Officer Stephen Harvey. “ISS will continue to enhance its suite of solutions and offerings to ensure our clients have access throughout the year to the full spectrum of corporate data needed for investment decision-making, portfolio monitoring and risk management.”
For more on ISS Analytics, Powered by DataDesk, click here.
