Fitch Ratings Chooses Sigma Ratings' Monitoring Solution to Explore Potential Governance and Financial Crime Risk in Analysis of Global Banks

NEW YORK and LONDON, Nov. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Sigma Ratings ("Sigma"), a next generation global risk intelligence data and technology platform, announced today that Fitch Ratings has chosen the firm for its proprietary ongoing risk monitoring capabilities to help further explore governance and financial crime risks in its analysis of banks.

Sigma's monitoring technology leverages proprietary machine learning models to detect relevant risk-related events in news media, commonly screened data sets such as sanctions and regulatory filings and uncommonly screened data sets such as bills of lading and corporate registries. The risk-related events that Sigma detects are based on recommendations made by international governing bodies such as the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and the Wolfsberg Group, as well as guidance from regulators at the national-level. Sigma's monitoring solutions now enable Fitch to create a 'risk monitoring network' in a unified, user-friendly, and dynamically updated view, which departs from traditional, narrowly focused monitoring platforms that consider static pieces of the risk spectrum.

James Longsdon, Fitch's Global Head of Bank Ratings, said: "Financial crime and mis-governance can be material risks for banks. We believe Sigma's data will be useful to our analysts in exploring and analyzing these risks in our global portfolio of rated banks."

Stuart Jones, Jr., Chief Executive Officer of Sigma added: "We are delighted to deepen our partnership with Fitch.  We've designed and implemented a more complete way for firms to monitor their counterparties for changes in risk, including several risk attributes that are proprietary to Sigma and related to recent governance failures in the financial sector.  We believe our work with Fitch will help it detect and consider some of these risks earlier in the process across their bank portfolio."

Prior research on proactive approaches to detecting risk-relevant governance issues published jointly by Fitch and Sigma can be found at sigmaratings.com. 

About Sigma

Sigma is the leading AI-driven risk intelligence platform used by global organizations to fight financial crime and make more informed, automated counterparty risk decisions.  Sigma uses point-in-time risk analysis and ongoing monitoring technology, to actively screen thousands of global data sources and return a unified stream of compliance intelligence on companies and people.  Sigma is backed by a global network of investors including the Fitch Group, FinTech Collective, Contour Ventures and Barclays Bank.

For further information about Sigma, please visit www.sigmaratings.com and connect with us on LinkedIn and Twitter @sigmaratings.

About Fitch Ratings

Fitch Group is a global leader in financial information services with operations in more than 30 countries. Fitch Group is comprised of: Fitch Ratings, a global leader in credit ratings and research; Fitch Solutions, a leading provider of credit market data, analytical tools and risk services; and Fitch Learning, a preeminent training and professional development firm. With dual headquarters in London and New York, Fitch Group is owned by Hearst.

For further information about Fitch, please visit www.fitchratings.com 

PRESS: Shannon Tremaine, 212-575-0233, [email protected]  

SOURCE Sigma Ratings, Inc.