Second-Party Opinions: Validation through an independent perspective

Issuers are increasingly using green, social and sustainability debt and loans as part of their financing strategy, and many are leveraging second-party opinions to provide an independent perspective on the strength and validity of their issuance to help stand out in the crowd.

MSCI offers Second-Party Opinions for green, social and now sustainability bonds and loans. At a time of greenwashing fears, second-party opinions can help certify your sustainable debt financing framework by assessing whether a transaction aligns with industry standards. What sets MSCI apart from the pack is its further assessment of alignment to the MSCI Labeled Bond and Loan Methodology.

Sustainable Bonds Insights 2023 by Environmental Finance

“While bond issuance fell in 2022 as interest rate rises were seen across markets, labelled bond issuance held up well,” argued Beth Byington. “In 2023, we expect further widening and deepening of labelled bond issuance.” Explore how corporates are using sustainable bonds to effectively communicate their transition plans to investors and the broader ESG market (page 51).

How ESG risk management can impact stock-specific risk

Stronger ESG risk management, reflecting how well companies manage their environmental and social key issues as well as corporate governance, contributed to lower stock-specific risk, an analysis by MSCI ESG Research finds.

Outstanding article of the year: Do corporate bond spreads take climate change risk into account?

In an award-winning article, we highlight the impact of climate-change risk on the value of developed-market corporate bond portfolios. We found under a scenario with a modest temperature-rise target (3°C), climate-change risk could negatively affect corporate bonds and their credit spreads could widen to more than double the current historically narrow levels. The paper was voted "Outstanding Article 2022" by the Journal of Portfolio Management.

What should investors consider when electing directors? Three trends

It’s proxy season and listed companies around the world will hold their annual shareholder meetings in the coming weeks. One of the most important items for investors to consider is the election of directors. Who sits on a company’s most senior decision-making body, and what backgrounds and skills board members have, is key to everything the company does.