S&P Global Ratings expands sustainable finance opinion services

Credit rating agency S&P Global Ratings is expanding its sustainable finance opinion services to include “Second Party Opinions” (SPO) on sustainability-linked financings, one of the fastest growing sectors in the market. S&P will assess the alignment of the entities’ sustainability-linked framework or transaction with third-party sustainable financing principles and guidelines.

As part of this, for the first time, S&P Global Ratings will opine on the relevance of key performance indicators (KPIs) and on the ambition of the targets for each KPI.

The Second Party Opinion for sustainability-linked financings reflects the extent to which a financing or transaction adheres to third-party sustainable financing principles and guidelines, such as the International Capital Markets Association (ICMA) and Loan Market Association (LMA) Sustainability-Linked Bond Principles (SLBP) and the Sustainability-Linked Lending Principles (SLLP).