Over nine out of ten (95%) buy-side financial services across the UK, US and Asia are looking to improve their ESG data management, with 80% of firms in total looking to do this within the next year. Additionally, 32% are planning on doing so in the next six months.

These results are among the findings of new research commissioned by Alveo, a leading provider of cloud-based market data management services, which polled executives working for buy-side financial services firms in the UK, US and Asia.

Further findings found that US executives were most confident about a focus on improving ESG data management over the short term, with 36% saying they were looking to improve it over the next six months. Just 28% of respondents in the UK made the same claim. 90% of executives polled across the three territories said they expected their firm’s investment in ESG data management to increase over the next two years, with 57% overall anticipating an over 25% increase in that timeframe.

Almost all firms (98%) are using advanced analytics tools including AI and machine learning in their approach to ESG data management today, although just over a third (35%) are making extensive use of it. Additionally, cost reduction is not high on the list when it comes to ESG priorities, with 39% instead citing data comparability, 37% naming data availability and 37% highlighting data usability among their top two.

For those that do decide to outsource ESG data management capabilities, the favoured models were Data-as-a-Service (31%), where a third party completes the data collection and validation, and hosting of the data collection and validation with the company’s own staff completing the data cleansing.

Neil Sandle, Head of Product Management at Alveo said, “The volume and range of ESG data sets has grown significantly to address different use cases and to supplement gaps in corporate disclosures. This means that investment management firms face a daunting integration task to ensure they have the complete picture. Firms need to ensure not only that their ESG data management is up to scratch, but that also that a clear approach to data ownership and governance is in place to handle future change and evolving business requirements.”