Dive Brief:
- BlackRock has integrated ESG research firm RepRisk’s data on corporate reputational risks into its Aladdin portfolio management software for banks, asset managers and financial institutions, RepRisk announced Thursday.
- RepRisk’s integration will give BlackRock’s Aladdin clients access to its dataset of more than 400,000 companies covering more than 100 risk factors, according to the release.
- The integration represents an expanded relationship between the world’s largest asset manager and the data-as-a-service provider. RepRisk’s data on corporate reputational risks and responsible business conduct was previously integrated into BlackRock’s platform for private market investments, eFront, in 2021.
Dive Insight:
RepRisk uses entirely third-party data to evaluate a company’s “material ESG risks” by screening more than 150,000 sources — from new media, social media, research firms, NGOs, and others — in 23 languages daily, according to its website.
RepRisk, which also utilizes artificial intelligence to scale up its reach, said in Thursday’s release it counts 80% of world’s “top investment managers” and 70% of the top 20 private equity firms as clients. RepRisk CEO Philipp Aeby said the integration into Aladdin allows RepRisk to “serve the global asset management and asset owner community.”
BlackRock Aladdin Managing Director Bernadette Rivosecchi said in the release that RepRisk’s integration into the software expands the investment management central processing system’s coverage of risk factors and companies, particularly in the private sector.
“We're excited to expand our collaboration with RepRisk and provide our clients with access to comprehensive business conduct data," Rivosecchi, also head of sustainability for the platform, said Thursday.
BlackRock previously partnered with research firm Rhodium Group in 2020 to integrate physical climate risk data into Aladdin.
BlackRock and RepRisk’s collaboration comes as U.S. financial regulators have looked to remove reputational risk, or issues that could harm the way a company is perceived, as a factor it examines and regulates. The Federal Reserve, Office of the Comptroller of Currency and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation have all said they will remove the concept of reputational risk from their regulatory approaches to financial institutions.