Credit Ratings Deserve ESG Risk Analysis, Not ESG Scores

In this episode of ESG Talks, Emilie Nadler, an associate in KBRA's ESG and credit policy team, moderates a conversation between Pat Welch, Chief Credit Officer and Head of ESG, KBRA, and William Cox, Global Head of Corporate, Financial and Government Ratings. They discuss our firm's approach to Environmental, Social and Governance, and more.“We do not plan to ask our credit rating analysts to step into the fray of creating ESG ratings or ESG scores. We do, however, continue to strengthen [analysts’] focus on material, quantitative, and qualitative, E, S, or G factors that impact credit. And that’s because we believe that rollup ESG scores by their nature are based on a significant number of subjective, value-based judgments about how to weight and score factors that don’t correlate with credit risk.” - William Cox