Sustainable Finance Ireland provides funding for ground-breaking ESG data project to First Derivative and Corlytics

The Sustainable Finance Skillnet, which is promoted by Sustainable Finance Ireland has awarded project funding to develop the world’s first ever publicly available, open-source Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) taxonomy mapping project. The funding is being provided to First Derivative, one of the world’s leading consulting and managed services firms, together with its regtech partner Corlytics.

The project is part of 18 key actions outlined in Ireland’s first Sustainable Finance Roadmap which was launched by Minister for Finance, Mr. Paschal Donohoe at the 4th Climate Finance Week Ireland in October. This roadmap sets out targeted measures with a view to Ireland being a leading sustainable finance centre by 2025.

This action, (no. 11 of the roadmap) will help to equip financial institutions to comply with required sustainability regulations and will help firms adapt and evolve their approach to ESG regulatory compliance and reporting, risk modelling and process re-engineering.

The project will map multi-jurisdictional regulations, reporting standards and green taxonomies – such as the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals, the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosure (TCFD), the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) and the EU International Platform on Sustainable Finance (IPSF) – into a single view. This will be offered as a reference framework for analytics and automated systems, helping financial institutions around the world navigate the emerging and overlapping standards in sustainable finance.

When complete, it will be the first publicly available sustainable finance dataset for the financial services sector.

Yvonne Holmes – Chair, Sustainable Finance Skillnet & Chief Sustainability Officer, AIB
“Sustainable Finance Skillnet are delighted to work with First Derivative to create this taxonomy mapping tool which will enable financial institutions to navigate all of the important regulatory requirements which are expanding at pace. The fact that this valuable information is open source will help to progress the overall sustainable finance agenda and is another step in Ireland becoming a leader in sustainable finance by 2025.”

Johnny Mattimore, Managing Director, Global Head of Risk & Sustainable Finance, First Derivative said:
“Together with Corlytics, we are developing an advanced, automated taxonomy capability for all regulations, standards and risk metrics relevant to ESG. There is nothing else like it in the marketplace. Our vision is game-changing, we have put open source at the centre of our strategy to help everyone better manage the transition, mitigate risk, and work faster to achieve a net zero future. It showcases our unrivalled capabilities of bringing together people, data and technology into a single powerful solution.”

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Notes to editors
Ireland’s first Sustainable Finance Roadmap
Ireland’s first Sustainable Finance Roadmap was developed by Sustainable Finance Ireland and UN-convened FC4S, in collaboration with public and private stakeholders across Ireland and internationally including the Department of Finance and Skillnet Ireland. This roadmap contains 18 targeted measures with a view to Ireland being a leading sustainable finance centre by 2025. Key outputs include the establishment of a new international Sustainable Finance Centre of Excellence in Ireland in partnership with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) hosted Financial Centres for Sustainability network (FC4S) network. It also has a strong focus on developing the skills required to deliver on Ireland being a leader in sustainable finance by 2025. You can read the roadmap here

About Sustainable Finance Ireland
A public-private initiative, Sustainable Finance Ireland works to position and promote Ireland as a leader in sustainable finance. It achieves this by providing thought leadership, raising awareness on excellence and best practice, building capacity in the sector, and catalysing innovation with supportive frameworks and tools. All activities align with government’s Ireland for Finance strategy and annual action plans, including the annual Climate Finance Week Ireland series and the Sustainable Finance Skillnet.

About Sustainable Finance Skillnet
Sustainable Finance Skillnet is a national network working to develop skills and leadership capacity to advance ESG best practice across Ireland’s financial services sector. The Sustainable Finance Skillnet is promoted by Sustainable Finance Ireland and is funded by Skillnet Ireland. Skillnet Ireland is a business support agency of the Government of Ireland, responsible for advancing the competitiveness, productivity, and innovation of Irish businesses through enterprise-led workforce development. Skillnet Ireland partners with over 50 industry bodies and enterprise clusters, supporting over 21,000 businesses annually, through its 73 Skillnet Business Networks across most sectors and all regions in Ireland. Skillnet Ireland is funded from the National Training Fund through the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science.

About First Derivative
Driven by people, data and technology, First Derivative is a managed services and consulting business, and one of the world’s leading Capital Markets consultancies. It is part of FD Technologies plc, a group of data-driven businesses that unlock the value of insight, hindsight, and foresight to drive organisations forward. Counting many of the world’s leading investment banks as clients, First Derivative helps its clients navigate the data-driven, digital revolution that is both disrupting and transforming the financial services sector. The Group operates from 15 offices across Europe, North America and Asia Pacific and employs more than 3000 people worldwide.

Media Contact: Ciaran Byrne @StoryLab: 01 685 3029