Provider of financial markets data and infrastructure Refinitiv today announced the launch of MarketPsych ESG Analytics, a new analytics tool to provide numerical ESG insights on companies and countries based on news and social media monitoring.

To monitor perceptions of sustainability and ESG risk, Refinitiv and MarketPsych have partnered to create a multidimensional ESG analytics offering. Refinitiv MarketPsych ESG Analytics complements Refinitiv’s existing ESG data by offering an external “outside-in” perspective on a company or country’s sustainability by processing millions of global articles and social media posts in near real-time.

Refinitiv MarketPsych ESG Analytics can be used in a host of applications. Quantitative investors can deploy the data to enhance alpha generation and risk management. Discretionary investors can use the data to improve portfolio construction. Corporate clients can monitor market perceptions of their own and competitor firms. Regulators can use the data to more precisely direct investigations.

Gathering and analyzing articles about environmental impacts, sustainability and government stewardship requires specialized capabilities. The software underlying the Refinitiv MarketPsych ESG Analytics is a complex AI-based natural language processing (NLP) engine, which locates, filters and scores ESG-themed content pertaining to specific companies as well as cities, regions and countries from tens of millions of authors in thousands of global resources. The NLP engine excludes corporate press releases, corporate websites and regulatory filings in order to maintain the outsider perspective of third-party media and minimize the impact of corporate “greenwashing.”

In this ESG data feed, scores on over 100 ESG themes and controversies are published in minutely, hourly, and daily updates. The data covers more than 30,000 companies and 252 countries and territories. The data history extends back to 1998, and companies were added point-in-time to facilitate quantitative research and minimize survivorship bias. Scores are published on key ESG themes such as intellectual property violations, management scandals and ESG policy failures.

Refinitiv has been serving the financial industry with ESG data and solutions for over 18 years and offers one of the richest ESG databases in the industry. Let’s recall that, in January this year, Refinitiv made ESG company scores available for free on Refinitiv.com. Users will also now have access to Refinitiv ESG data through the Refinitiv ESG Voice App.