Credit Rating Agencies and Investors Start Initiative to Consider ESG in a Systematic Way

Leading credit rating agencies are taking part in an initiative to incorporate ESG (ESG= environmental, social, governance) criteria more systematically in credit ratings and analysis. The project has been initiated by the Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) with support from the UNEP Inquiry and a group of PRI signatories which includes KfW. The initiative has a common understanding that the consideration of ESG criteria helps fixed income investors to limit risks and to better understand and evaluate issuers’ creditworthiness. In a first step, six credit rating agencies and 100 investors have signed a joint “Statement on ESG in Credit Ratings”.

Further information

PRI press release

Statement on ESG in Credit Ratings