The market for non-financial rating agencies - France

There are two types of rating: declarative and solicited. Solicited ratings, unlike declarative ratings, are carried out at the company's request. Today, there is growing criticism of the risk of greenwashing that arises from solicited ratings, since it is the companies themselves that provide the data to the rating agencies. What's more, not all agencies take the same criteria into account. As a result, two agencies can give very different ratings to the same company. On a global level, Europe has taken the lead in this market, although major American financial rating agencies have begun to buy up European players. the global market for ESG data will exceed the US$1 billion threshold for the first time in 2021. Buoyed by an impressive annual growth rate of 28% over the past five years, the market could exceed US$1.3 billion by 2022. [Opimas] While demand for extra-financial ratings will undoubtedly continue to grow over the coming years, the market is also coming under increasing criticism. To avoid losing the confidence of investors, it will be necessary to make the criteria used transparent and to harmonize standards at European level.