Today’s short post is a short report on the news that S&P Global have today launched their new ‘ESG Scores’ into the marketplace. The move is the latest by the leading credit rating agencies to stake their claim to the ever-growing need for ESG-related information. The leading credit rating agencies, and the ‘Big Two’ of S&P and Moody’s have been making a concerted effort to increase the stake in the growing ESG-informational provider field. With S&P acquiring TruCost, and Moody’s acquiring Vigeo-Eiris, amongst other moves, the trajectory is perhaps set. I have argued elsewhere that this may result in particular outcomes for the current ‘sustainability rating industry’, and that trajectory is being proven all the time. Morningstar, earlier this year, purchased Sustainalytics outright . Moody’s acquired a majority stake in one of the oldest ‘sustainability rating agencies’ Vigeo-Eiris early last year. On top of acquiring TruCost in 2016, S&P followed that up wi...

In this short post today, we will look at the news recently regarding the rating agencies’ declarations regarding two countries’ sovereign debt ratings, what underpins them, and what may be next for countries facing up to the COVID-19 pandemic, amongst a number of other impactful factors. The first news came from South Africa. As was to be expected on account of the other two rating agencies downgrading South Africa to ‘junk status’, Moody’s finally took the leap and cut South Africa’s rating to Ba1, from Baa3, with the outlook remaining negative . In providing details as to why Moody’s finally followed S&P and Fitch in downgrading South Africa to junk status, albeit 3 years later, the agency stated that the key driver underpinning the downgrade was ‘ the continuing deterioration in fiscal strength and structurally very weak growth, which Moody’s does not expect current policy settings to address effectively ’ (sign-in required). The agency then went on to detail the reasoni...