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We provide issuers and borrowers of sustainable debt instruments with independent opinions on their ESG commitments for Green, Social, Sustainable Bonds and Loans or Sustainability-Linked Bonds and Loans. Our Second Party Opinions (SPOs) allow issuers and borrowers to strengthen the transparency and robustness of their ESG debt frameworks, by providing investors and lenders with an independent expert assessment.
We assess both Use of Proceed and Sustainability-linked debt format by evaluating how the ESG financing frameworks align with ICMA (International Capital Market Association) and LMA (Loan Market Association) sustainability principles. In addition to SPOs, we carry out post-issuance KPI performance certification and verifications of allocation and impact.
All types of debt issuers entrust us with the assessment of their debt instruments and frameworks:
The combined expertise from imug rating, acquired in 2023, and EthiFinance has allowed us to build a team of experts in corporate sustainability and sustainable finance with a proven track-record of assessing sustainable debt instruments, their alignment with different sustainability principles and standards and their concrete environmental and social impact.
Our Sustainable Finance teams are based in our European offices (France, Germany and Spain) and communicate, manage projects and deliver reports in English, French, German, and Spanish. Translation of reports into other languages is also proposed.
The European Green Bond Standard is a voluntary framework designed to enhance the transparency and credibility of green bonds issued within the European Union. It aims to support the transition to a sustainable economy by ensuring that funds raised are allocated to projects that align with the EU taxonomy for environmentally sustainable activities.
All EU Green Bond issuers must use an external reviewer to assess their compliance with the requirements of the European Green Bonds Regulation.EthiFinance has notified ESMA and can therefore act as EU Green Bond External Reviewer during the transitional period until the regulation comes into full force and external reviewers will need to be accredited by ESMA in June 2026. EthiFinance supports EU Green Bond issuers with both pre-issuance review of European Green Bond factsheet and post-issuance review of allocation and impact reports.
EU GB External Review Methodology
Find out more about how we conduct EU GB external reviews.
Since the launch of our SPO services in 2018, we have delivered close to 100* SPOs across the European market for a broad scope of clients (both private and public).
Our ESG analyst team of more than 25 experts* experts is based in our offices throughout Europe (France, Germany and Spain), delivering SPOs in English, French, German and Spanish.
Our clients trust us for our wide-ranging experience in completing SPO assignments for sustainability debt instruments (Bonds, Loans, Commercial Paper, Securitization) both under Use of Proceeds and Sustainability-linked formats.
Our clients appreciate our availability, flexibility and our proximity to their markets.
*As of May 2024
Our Second Party Opinion methodologies cover both Use of Proceeds format instruments and Sustainability-linked format instruments.
The evaluation is twofold or threefold depending on the type of structuration:
