The agreement enables Refinitiv customers to vet companies and investments against a reliable and unique source of alternative data on reputational and governance risk.

Enhanced Due Diligence reports from Refinitiv provide detailed background checks on companies and investors that require a higher level of scrutiny. The reports support compliance teams as they look to meet their regulatory obligations, optimize the due diligence process and protect company reputation.

Data from Sigwatch shows NGOs are regularly taking corporates to task on ESG-related issues.
• According to Sigwatch there have been almost 11,000 ESG-related NGO actions since January 2019, nearly 1,300 of these have been against the financial services sector.
• The collaboration enables Refinitiv to offer insight into NGO campaigns affecting more than 19,000 companies, brands and projects, plus details on more than 80,000 campaign actions and up to 40 new campaigns reported daily.
The data is particularly useful when assessing global supply chain risk, or when entering into higher-risk transactions such as IPOs and mergers and acquisitions. Reputational impact data is valuable to investors, banks and corporates as they increasingly look to use environmental, social and governance factors to decide where to allocate capital, the value they place on a company and how they manage risk.

“Data is at the heart of what we do at Refinitiv and that’s why I’m very excited about our content partnership with Sigwatch,” said Charles Minutella, head of Refinitiv’s Enhanced Due Diligence business. “This alternative dataset will provide our customers with unique ‘on the ground’ insight, with a focus on critical ESG factors that have become increasingly significant in the decision to conduct business with a company.”

“Sigwatch offers businesses valuable insights into where NGOs are applying their campaigning resources and we are looking forward to offering this insight through Refinitiv’s extensive customer base,” said Robert Blood, Managing Director at Sigwatch. “NGO groups are ‘early adopters’ of issues and knowing what they are worrying and talking about helps business understand the problems that might confront them or their sector today, and in the months and years ahead.”

Refinitiv will feature data from Sigwatch in all three categories of Enhanced Due Diligence reports it offers to customers. The level of data included will vary according to whether customers opt for Refinitiv’s Lite, Standard or Premium EDD report. The Premium report will feature the full range of Sigwatch data, including the trends and top issues affecting the industry of the company under review, a summary table featuring the number of criticisms of the company in the last 12 months, the number of praises and the total number of NGO actions. It will also include charts on the top issues affecting the company, the top NGO criticisms, as well as a detailed elaboration of the five most recent NGO criticisms of the company.