ESG data is a public good. Let’s open it up. – ImpactAlpha

“There is a lot of confusion about how to implement climate as well as environmental, social and governance, or ESG, analysis in finance. Today, ratings agencies, researchers and fund managers use different, often proprietary models to assess companies’ ESG performance. That makes it difficult to compare one company to another, and leaves room for greenwashing. 

It also holds back a full throttled re-pricing of social and environmental-related risks and opportunities. 

Climate risk analysis should not be an “investment edge,” but a “public good.” Global warming is already causing more frequent extreme weather events, and scientists warn that we are headed for far worse without a dramatic course correction. 

So here’s an idea: let’s make climate and ESG data open to everyone. …”

Meet Plume: A new PubSweet platform created by the French Financial Jurisdictions : Collaborative Knowledge Foundation

“The French financial jurisdictions, which include the Paris-based Cour des comptes (the French Superior Audit Institution) and the regional and territorial chambers of accounts, have been collaborating with Coko for the past 10 months, building an experimental PubSweet platform.

The project is part of a program called Public Interest Entrepreneurs, directed by Etalab, a department of the French Interministerial Directorate for Digital Affairs that promotes open data and open source. The project is headed up by two public interest entrepreneurs, Nikos Peteinatos, designer and member of the Editoria Advisory Group, and Erica Marco, developer.

The system, currently under development, is called Plume, and it leverages the PubSweet framework and community modules, including Editoria, Wax and Paged.js (from the forthcoming Cabbage Tree Labs). The pilot phase of the project ran for ten months, and deemed successful, the team now embarks on a secondary phase over the next six months with two new developers joining the team….

The system’s primary function is to facilitate the authoring of audit reports. It can be thought of as a customized version of Editoria….”

CFA Institute launches Asia-Pacific research hub | Money Management

“CFA Institute has launched a new open-access hub by and for finance professionals looking for research on investment practices in Asia-Pacific.

Called the Asia-Pacific Research Exchange (ARX), the site would be open to global and regional investment professionals looking for Asia-Pacific finance and investment management trends or to learn more about the region’s financial markets….”

Private health funds accused of misusing patient data for commercial gain | afr.com

“The inquiry, for which submissions close on July 29, is examining the benefits and costs of data being shared more widely between public sector agencies, private sector organisations, the research sector, academics and the community…. 

In a submission by Australian Dental Association (ADA) president Dr Rick Olive, the peak body said the way some private health insurers were already behaving should be a warning on the perils of data sharing….

Fintech player Tyro Payments meanwhile called for the right to see, use and share data to be mandated in a clearer way, saying existing rights under the Privacy Act of 1988 were effectively neutered in practice.

Tyro said data sharing would see consumers of financial services “benefit from vastly broader product choice and competitive terms”.

Meanwhile, banks that open access to data and create external application programming interfaces could “benefit because it would enable them to become more of a ‘platform’ for other services”. …”