October 26, 2021
October 26, 2021
The winners of the second edition of G20 TechSprint, an international contest to search for innovative solutions, were announced during an awards ceremony live streamed from Milan. This year’s contest focused on the most pressing challenges in green and sustainable finance.
An independent panel of 21 world experts selected the three most promising solutions for the challenges set by Banca d'Italia and the BIS Innovation Hub, with input from G20 finance ministries and central banks.
CRIF - a global company specializing in credit and business information systems, advanced analytics as well as advanced digital solutions for business development and open banking - together with RED - a highly specialized firm in the sector of consulting services related to risk assessment for natural and climate-related disasters - won the ‘Analysis and assessment of transition and physical climate-related risks’ category for their ‘Climate Risk Analytics Suite’ solution, which provides a digital platform for supporting institutions in monitoring and reporting climate-related risks in line with international recommendations.
The Climate Risk Analytics Suite is a unique digital platform containing a wide set of tools - data, algorithms, and methodologies - that can help financial institutions to comply with requirements on the monitoring and reporting of climate-related risks and opportunities in line with international recommendations. It supports institutions in increasing their awareness of climate-related risks and helps them take the right strategic decisions connected to these issues.
Deputy Governor of Banca d'Italia , Alessandra Perrazzelli, said, "The G20 TechSprint 2021 initiative engaged innovators worldwide to take up global and complex challenges in data collection, analysis of climate-related risks, and better connecting projects and investors. The three winning solutions show how technological innovations and finance can solve concrete problems creatively. The search for innovative technological solutions in the field of finance is in line with central banks' traditional mission to safeguard monetary and financial stability by ensuring that the financial system operates in the best interests of the people and the whole economy.”
“This TechSprint has been instrumental in scanning the technological universe and in helping us refine the BIS Innovation Hub's contribution to the green finance agenda,” commented Benoît Coeuré, Head of the BIS Innovation Hub. “The G20 TechSprint series have already proven to be a practical global forum for policy makers and technologists to collaborate on key areas of relevance to the regulatory and central banking community. We look forward to continuing this close cooperation,” he added.
Today, financial institutions are being asked to quantify and monitor a set of risks that is “far” from those that are normally examined in their day-to-day business. This is clearly a complex challenge that requires them to become familiar with completely new terminology, as well as to deal with new data and methodologies. That’s why CRIF and RED, through their solution, tried to build a bridge between an innovative physical risk assessment and the already established risk assessments of banks. Currently, the Climate Risk Analytics Suite features six panels that have been developed to satisfy different types of users, from managers needing to access aggregated and summary views of climate-related risk concentrations, to users that need accurate risk analytics for an individual collateral or specific counterparty. For example, through the Climate Risk Analytics Suite, a bank can analyze the impact of physical risks on its clients as well as on each of the latter’s assets, taking into consideration both the current time-horizon and a particular climate change scenario. The bank will also be able to assess the presence of portfolio concentrations in areas characterized by particularly high levels of risk.
“We are really honoured for this highly recognized award from Banca d’Italia and the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), that is a confirmation of CRIF investments and commitment on sustainability and ESG issues and cutting edge solutions. Innovation is part of CRIF Dna and the philosophy that leads our teams is to build very pragmatic business applications through the contribution of multiple areas of competence. An interdisciplinary approach that will enable the hybridization of skills while keeping a strong customer centricity,” commented Pier Paolo Cristaudo, CRIF Global Data Science Director.
G20 TechSprint, launched by Banca d'Italia and the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) Innovation Hub in May as part of Italy's G20 Presidency, received proposals from 25 countries, with 21 teams going on to the final stage.
