Sustainable Fitch, which provides assessments of financial instruments from the standpoint of their environmental, social and governance qualities, will begin offering ratings for framework and instrument ratings on asset-backed securities, according to the division of Fitch Group.
The move brings to $100 billion Fitch Group's current data sets of labelled structured bonds from North American, U.K. and European corporates and financial institutions. Sustainable Fitch launched its ESG ratings coverage in September, and already provides such ratings on leveraged finance instruments.
In the ESG context Fitch provides entity ratings, which examines an issuing entity's impact on the environment and society based on its business activities; framework ratings that evaluate the financial instrument's ESG impact based on key performance indicators; and instrument ratings, which looks at financial instruments through the lens of issuers and allows for an absolute comparison of financing across sectors, geographies and labelling frameworks.
"Our ESG data and analysis combined with ESG Ratings provide investors with the necessary tools to evaluate ESG impact, outcome and performance at a detailed individual factor level," according to a statement from Mike Simonton, head of Sustainable Fitch.
Fitch expects to achieve full coverage of labelled bonds by early 2023, including public finance, agency and sovereign debt issues, the company said.
