Util Launches New, AI-Driven Universal Impact and SDG for Fixed Income Offering in Collaboration with ICE

Rhea-AI Summary

Util (NYSE: ICE) collaborates with Intercontinental Exchange to launch SDG for Fixed Income product, expanding impact data availability across funds, indexes, and public and private companies. The new Universal Impact product offers objective and customizable impact data to support increasing demand for impact investing and transparency in ESG and green investments.

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• Util's collaboration with Intercontinental Exchange to launch SDG for Fixed Income product expands impact data availability across various sectors, meeting the growing demand for evidence-based sustainability data. The Universal Impact product offers consistent, objective, and customizable impact data to support increasing demand for impact investing and transparency in ESG and green investments.

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Util’s evidence-based impact data is now available across funds, indexes, and many public and private companies to meet expanding investor demand.

LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Util, the award-winning provider of evidence-based sustainability data, today announced its collaboration with Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. (NYSE: ICE), to launch its new SDG for Fixed Income product. SDG Impact for Fixed Income brings together Util’s SDG impact metrics and ICE’s industry-leading data and linkage capabilities to deliver coverage of over 1.2 million fixed income securities across listed public companies.

“SDG for Fixed Income is the first tangible result of our work with ICE, and is powered by Util’s proprietary, AI-driven Evidence Engine^™,” said Mike Goynes, CTO at Util. “The Evidence Engine maps a company’s products to known sustainability concepts using peer-reviewed academic research and provides investors and stakeholders with an evidence-based data set that shows a company's unseen risks and unrealized product value.”

In addition, today Util launches its Universal Impact product, which delivers Util’s proprietary impact data across more asset classes and impact frameworks to enable deeper data analyses, offering consistent, objective, and customizable impact data to support additional use cases and client types.

“Demand for impact investing continues to grow, with 95% of investors surveyed by the Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN) stating that they plan to maintain or increase their allocations to impact,” said Patrick Wood Uribe, CEO at Util. “While demand is rising, increased regulation and scrutiny of ESG and green investments is causing investors to seek more transparent, objective, and evidence-based data to support their strategies. Interest is also expanding outside of asset managers, with private equity and investment banks seeking reliable insights to assess the value and risk of their portfolio companies.”

Universal Impact builds on the success of Util’s first product, SDG Impact for Public Companies, significantly increasing coverage to enable investors to assess the impact of more than 50,000 public companies across all major indices and exchanges, fixed income, and nearly 4,000 private companies and funds. The expanded offering enables Util’s clients to measure impact across 2,000 sustainability concepts and map to many known sustainability frameworks, including the UN SDGS, SFDR/ EU Taxonomy, GRI, and TNFD, as well as client-defined frameworks to meet their specific ESG goals and investing criteria.

“We found that while the UN SDGs were a helpful starting point, many of our clients were looking to reveal impacts across other frameworks and methodologies, for more than just publicly traded companies,” added Wood Uribe. “Universal Impact is a natural extension of what we do best and enables us to provide our valuable insights to a broader audience.”

Since , Util has leveraged its Evidence Engine^™ to map the positive and negative impacts of 50,000+ publicly traded companies to the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), attracting asset management clients like PGIM Quantitative Solutions, Danske Bank, and Degroof Petercam, who incorporate Util’s data in portfolio construction, client reporting, regulatory reporting, and other use cases.

For more information about Util and Universal Impact, please visit www.util.co.

About Util

Util is an award-winning provider of sustainability intelligence to financial institutions. Its evidence-driven analytics capture the performance of every publicly listed company in the world and several thousand private companies and funds. The company currently offers two primary products for financial professionals, SDG for Public Equities and Universal Impact. SDG for Public Equities analyzes the impact of more than 50,000 listed companies—of every size, region, and sector—relative to the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and thousands of other sustainability concepts, empowering investors to better understand and optimize their real-world impact. Universal Impact expands Util’s evidence-driven insights to cover more asset classes and sustainability frameworks, allowing for deeper and more customized analysis that can be used by a broader audience to support more sophisticated analysis.

About Intercontinental Exchange

Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. (NYSE: ICE) is a Fortune 500 company that designs, builds and operates digital networks to connect people to opportunity. We provide financial technology and data services across major asset classes that offer our customers access to mission-critical workflow tools that increase transparency and operational efficiencies. We operate exchanges, including the New York Stock Exchange, and clearing houses that help people invest, raise capital and manage risk across multiple asset classes. Our comprehensive fixed income data services and execution capabilities provide information, analytics and platforms that help our customers capitalize on opportunities and operate more efficiently. At ICE Mortgage Technology, we are transforming and digitizing the U.S. residential mortgage process, from consumer engagement through loan registration. Together, we transform, streamline and automate industries to connect our customers to opportunity.

Trademarks of ICE and/or its affiliates include Intercontinental Exchange, ICE, ICE block design, NYSE and New York Stock Exchange. Information regarding additional trademarks and intellectual property rights of Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. and/or its affiliates is located here. Key Information Documents for certain products covered by the EU Packaged Retail and Insurance-based Investment Products Regulation can be accessed on the relevant exchange website under the heading “Key Information Documents (KIDS).”

Safe Harbor Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 -- Statements in this press release regarding ICE's business that are not historical facts are "forward-looking statements" that involve risks and uncertainties. For a discussion of additional risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements, see ICE's Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings, including, but not limited to, the risk factors in ICE's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2022, as filed with the SEC on February 2, 2023.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230726388712/en/

Util Media:

Blair Staunton

blair@util.co

ICE Media:

Isabella Bezzone

+1 212 748 3948

Isabella.Bezzone@ice.com

Damon Leavell

+1 212 323 8587

Damon.Leavell@ice.com

Source: Util

FAQ

What is the collaboration between Util and Intercontinental Exchange about?

The collaboration aims to launch the SDG for Fixed Income product, expanding impact data availability across various sectors.

What is the purpose of the new Universal Impact product?

The Universal Impact product offers objective and customizable impact data to support increasing demand for impact investing and transparency in ESG and green investments.

How many companies does Util's expanded offering enable clients to measure impact across?

The expanded offering enables clients to measure impact across more than 50,000 public companies, nearly 4,000 private companies and funds, and 1.2 million fixed income securities.

What are some known sustainability frameworks that Util's Universal Impact product maps to?

The Universal Impact product maps to known sustainability frameworks including the UN SDGs, SFDR/ EU Taxonomy, GRI, and TNFD, as well as client-defined frameworks to meet their specific ESG goals and investing criteria.