Skip to content

Contact

For more information on Maplecroft's products and services please call +44 (0)1225 420000 to speak to a business development executive.

Alternatively, contact info@maplecroft.com to arrange a Webex demonstration of Maplecroft's product range and wider professional services, which provides the perfect platform to further explore our resources.

Download PDF

Financial Services

Maplecroft offers a range of analysis, research and consulting services to help financial services firms understand the fast-changing geo-political environment in order to minimise their global risk exposure and identify investment opportunities.

Clients include many of the world’s leading banks, asset managers, insurance companies, international development banks, investment banks, private equity firms, pension funds and sovereign wealth funds. Our products and services have been developed to enable these organisations to identify current and future political, social, environmental and reputational threats affecting countries and companies at national and sub-national levels.

Maplecroft’s products and services for the financial sector include over 160 risk indices and interactive maps; country risk reports; commodity and sector specific reports; company risk reports; ESG risk ratings; due diligence services; investment decision making; and asset screening tools and risk calculators to assess ESG, sovereign and supply chain risks.

Maps and indices

With over 160+ risk indices and interactive maps, Maplecroft analyses the most pressing issues impacting the agro-commodities sector down to site specific levels. Indices and maps include: climate change vulnerability; natural hazards; water stress; food security; corruption; legal and regulatory risks; political risks; poverty and development; and reputational threats arising from complicity with labour rights and human rights violations in the supply chain.

Maplecroft’s indices and interactive maps are available individually or can be accessed through seven thematic risk atlases, which aggregate key issues.

Atlases

Maplecroft’s Atlases are updated annually and provide maps, indices and scorecards for up to 197 countries, as well as analysis of the key issues, methodologies and data sources.

  • Global Risks Atlas

    Assesses the strategic risks that impact the global value chains of business, as well as the ability of national institutions to mitigate them. Includes 36 risk indices and interactive maps assessing macroeconomics; security; resource security; climate change; and pandemics; governance risks and societal resilience.

  • Political Risk Atlas

    Appraisal of traditional political risks including: conflict, terrorism, rule of law and the regulatory and business environment; as well as structural challenges affecting political stability such as resource security, climate change and human rights. Includes 50 political risk indices, maps and scorecards for 197 countries.

  • Legal and Regulatory Environment Risk Atlas

    An ideal tool to help organisations identify and monitor legal and regulatory risks, such as corruption, corporate governance, regulatory framework, respect for property rights. Includes 21 indices and maps, scorecards for 173 countries, in addition to an assessment of the implementation of ten key legal instruments.

  • Human Rights Risk Atlas

    Analyses 31 different human rights violation categories – including seven composite indices covering human security, labour rights and protection, civil and political rights, access to remedy, complicity and lack of rule of law, reporting environment, and overall human rights protection – across 197 countries.

  • Climate Change and Environmental Risk Atlas

    Provides comprehensive analysis of the key risks to business in the areas of climate change vulnerability and adaption; emissions and energy use; environmental regulation; and ecosystem services. It includes 23 interactive maps and indices, which have been developed to identify, evaluate and compare climate change and environmental risks down to 25km2 worldwide and provide insight into current and emerging trends.

  • Natural Hazards Risk Atlas

    Evaluates the risks and resilience to the occurrence of natural hazard events in 197 countries. Includes indices and interactive subnational maps of 12 natural hazard risks, as well as scorecards for all countries. The Atlas also measures overall economic exposure and socio-economic resilience to natural hazards.

  • Growth Markets Atlas

    Provides an evaluation of economic performance, investment conduciveness, recent structural reforms and projected future demographic trends, including growth of middle class consumers. Maplecroft divides its scoring across the three indices evaluating Growth Performance, Growth Environment and Growth Potential. The Atlas includes 17 indices and scorecards for 173 countries.

Reports and analysis

Maplecroft’s briefings and in-depth reports help financial organisations to monitor and manage a wide variety of operational and reputational risks. These empower firms to understand the full spectrum of extra-financial risks associated with investing in a country or sub-national region.



Maplecroft monitoring and reporting system

  • Baseline in-depth reports (25+ pages): Produced at the outset of the year or at an agreed alternate annual date to provide substantive background analysis and due diligence review of key issues and risks (the governance framework; political risk and violence; the economy; the regulatory and business environment; human rights and society; and natural hazards, environment and climate change). In addition the reports integrate GIS derived, sub-national maps and provide stakeholder viewpoints on risk and key recent events.
  • Weekly, Monthly, Quarterly Monitors (1 page scorecards for key watch countries): Offering quantitative country risk scores and trends of increasing, unchanged or decreasing risk across key risk areas and qualitative analysis of significant recent events and outlooks across the core risk areas. Developed to focus on issues driving changes to risk scores and our forecast for the next quarter including implications for sectors.
  • Trigger briefings (2-4 pages): Concise analysis and forecasts that are activated when the risk within a country changes significantly, as shown in the monitor. These focus on the issues driving changes to risk scores and the implications for business.
  • In-depth update reports or tailored specific reports (25+ pages): Produced when more in-depth analysis is required on the back of the trigger briefing and pertaining to sectors or business specific

Issue specific reports

  • Commodity and sector specific reports: These provide in-depth assessments of key risks associated with particular commodities or sectors for either a country or a range of countries, including appropriate analysis of key suppliers and producers. These allow investors to understand and compare how different countries offer different levels of risk and help firms to establish suitable country or commodity specific risk-management tools and procedures.
  • Company risk reports and ESG ratings: These vital tools give investors and corporate users essential insights into a company’s ESG (environmental, social and governance) performance. They assess a company’s performance through in-depth analysis of both ESG and political risk exposure and the company’s corresponding risk management proficiency. This is undertaken through an assessment of publicly available information, third party sources, news-feeds, as well as direct engagement with the company where required. These reports have been developed to provide firms with intelligence on suppliers, joint venture partners or possible investment or acquisition targets.
  • Supply chain integrity briefings: Detailed evaluations of pertinent operational and reputational risks to companies in the financial sector sourcing from or outsourcing to key countries within their value chain. Topics include: labour rights and protection, civil and political risks, corruption risks and environmental protections.

Further products for the financial sector are available via the Global Risks Portfolio and include: corruption risk briefings, election monitors and quarterly political risk and human rights monitors.

Maplecroft’s products are available for all countries and can be tailored to client specifications.

Interactive Tools

  • ESG Sovereign Risk Calculator: Maplecroft’s ESG Atlas and Risk Calculator help investors identify and monitor exposures and opportunities throughout their investment portfolios, across asset classes or global supply chains. These products are particularly useful for global firms operating in fast-moving emerging markets who are seeking to monitor a wide range of dynamic risk exposures. Quarterly monitors can also help firms to identify emerging risks and issues.
  • Custom country / sovereign risk calculators: These products allow companies and investors to select and compare risk indices to empirically quantify risk for all geographies of interest. Interactive Dashboard functionality can combine these indices with internal client-specific risk data to assist project screening, supplier risk assessment and asset management.

Services

Maplecroft’s professional services help companies in the financial sector to minimise risk exposure, to identify opportunities and to maintain sustainable and responsible strategies in line with international guidelines and stakeholder expectations. This is achieved through bespoke risk assessments, ESG and political risk due diligence tools, award-winning sustainability reporting and client-specific advisory services.

The company also has longstanding experience in supply chain risk management, offering custom-built monitoring and reporting tools to map intrinsic risk exposure and suppliers’ risk management proficiency.

Specialised services for financial services companies

  • Sustainability and social impact assessments, reporting and policy development
  • Tailored risk monitoring and reporting tools
  • Human rights, political risk and ESG due diligence
  • Investment decision making
  • Portfolio screening and engagement services
  • Project risk identification and assessment, mapping and monitoring
  • Ethical supply chain management
  • Custom-built GIS (Geographic Information System) global and project-specific mapping capability
  • 01
  • 02
  • 03

01Portfolio screening for a UK-based asset management firm

Maplecroft has conducted extensive risk screening to assess political and ESG risk exposures in a large number of companies within the portfolio of a well-known UK-based asset management firm. Work for the firm included:

  • Provision of a range of risk analysis services and products, including in-depth company risk reports and ESG ratings for investment due diligence across 350 companies.
  • Detailed political and ESG risk assessments of the global value chains of the companies were made utilising Maplecroft’s risk indices and interactive maps.
  • Producing a range of maps and scorecards for each company that allowed the firm to easily compare investment risks across a wide range of assets, issues and countries.

Maplecroft’s work allows the firm to identify emerging investment opportunities and to pinpoint inherent and emerging risks relevant to current and potential investments. In addition, these resources maintain a sustainable and responsible investment portfolio, which complies with selected investment criteria.

02Commodity specific reports for an international development bank

Maplecroft has tailored a range of reports identifying key risks in the export finance of agro-commodities, across developing markets, for an international development bank.

  • Following a consultation process Maplecroft produced a series of reports, each focusing on one country, on the status of a range of commodities, including: sugar, cocoa, palm oil, rubber and coffee.
  • Each report includes detailed analysis of the environmental and social risks involved in the production of agro-commodities, including labour rights, human rights, water stress and exposure to natural hazards.
  • Analysis also offers a review of key producers and processors, including subnational mapping of risks including overlays of individual plantations and operations.

These reports enable the development bank to identify investment and reputational risks and were used to inform its investment decision making.

03Review of company ESG management proficiency in high risk countries

Maplecroft has undertaken in-depth quantitative and qualitative analysis to assess company ESG risk management proficiency in high risk countries for a leading Dutch asset management company. The project involved:

  • Development of a country risk index to identify high risk countries based on the ESG risks of most interest to the client.
  • Assessment of company risk management proficiency through a bespoke company rating tool, based on Maplecroft’s established Human Rights Benchmarking and Climate Innovation Index methodology.
  • Direct engagement with the companies provided an opportunity to ask targeted questions ensuring the accuracy of analysis.

Maplecroft’s analysis identified key engagement opportunities that inform the client’s ongoing process of company engagement.