Nasdaq launches ESG Data Hub as industry moves forward

Nasdaq has launched its latest expansion of Nasdaq’s growing suite of products aiming to support investors in their sustainable investment decisions.

ESG Data Hub connects investors with expert-led ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) data sets from leading providers across a wide spectrum of areas, including gender diversity, carbon emissions, and climate risk, providing detailed and tangible intelligence on companies’ ESG profiles.

The platform provides consolidated access to information through a single interface. To support transparency and global comparability, all data available in the platform is connected to the Sustainable Development Goals set out by the United Nations. To optimize data quality, Nasdaq has worked with industry leaders within a wide range of categories across the ESG scope.

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The ESG Data Hub uses data from Equileap (Gender equality), Ecogain (Biodiversity), RepRisk (Reputational risk), Munich Re (Climate risk), Inrate (Carbon emissions), Upright Project (Net impact) and Clean Tech (Renewable technology).

Additional data partners will be added continuously. In addition, data from Nasdaq’s proprietary data service Nasdaq Sustainable Bond Network will be available through ESG Data Hub.

Diana van Maasdijk, CEO at Equileap, said: “This launch reflects a growing interest in ESG data from investors. We are very proud to partner with Nasdaq and provide reliable gender equality data on their new platform. We know for a fact that companies with a more diverse leadership perform better and are more sustainable. Equileap’s gender diversity data helps investors make a difference and a return.”

James McKeone, VP, Head of European Data at Nasdaq, commented: “Nasdaq ESG Data Hub responds to the growing demand for more specialized and high-quality data, helping investors to make more intelligent and well-founded investment decisions. Together with our clients and data partners globally, I look forward to continuing building ESG Data Hub, the latest addition to Nasdaq’s growing suite of products and services supporting sustainable and inclusive capitalism.”

ESG has become one of the most trending topics of today as the industry moves toward a new approach under pressure from governments and lobbies. Nasdaq is following the times.

The exchange operator has recently acquired Verafin, an anti-financial crime management solutions provider. This will help the global financial technology company to expand its existing RegTech solutions, which will be offered to a global ecosystem of Tier-1 and Tier-2 banks and broker-dealers.

Verafin boasts big data intelligence capabilities, visual storytelling, and collaborative investigation. “We are thrilled to welcome Verafin’s talented employees into the Nasdaq family and look forward to supporting local institutions in Newfoundland and Labrador to promote continued innovation”, Ms. Friedman added.

Verafin operates in St. John’s, Newfoundland, and Labrador and will continue to do so, as a stand-alone organization aligned with Nasdaq’s Market Technology business. Nasdaq estimates the inclusion of Verafin to increase organic revenue growth in the Market Technology business of 13-16% CAGR over the medium-term (3-5 years). The broader Solutions Segments businesses may also grow to achieve a 6-9% organic revenue CAGR over the medium-term.

The deal between Nasdaq and Verafin was first announced in November 2020 and involved a sum of $2.75 billion in order to accelerate the US exchange’s evolution into a Saas technology provider. Verafin’s capabilities will be available to the global network of nearly 250 banks, exchanges, broker-dealers and buy-side organizations, and regulatory authorities that already rely on Nasdaq’s technology to detect market manipulation and abuse.