ESG Viewpoint:
BlueBay Asset Management
# RepRisk interviews Lucy Byrne, Senior ESG Analyst at BlueBay Asset Management
# April 2021
1. RepRisk: Please provide some insight into your specific role at BlueBay Asset Management (BlueBay) and explain the work that you and your team do.
Lucy Byrne: My role is Senior ESG Analyst within BlueBay’s ESG Investment Team. Primarily, our team is responsible for designing and implementing our ESG investment strategy across the firm, working to empower our investment teams in further developing their understanding and use of ESG knowledge in the investment decision-making process.
2. RR: BlueBay is a client of RepRisk since 2018. How do you and your team incorporate RepRisk data into your investment strategy and processes?
LB: We use RepRisk data as an input into our issuer ESG analysis, combining it with insights we receive from a variety of other external vendors. Taken together, the external vendors result in complimentary ESG insights to inform our views.
3. RR: Why do you think it is important that ESG be embedded into every investment decision, and not seen as a separate, nice-to-have investment discipline?
LB: Firstly, because the business case for integrating ESG has grown. Incorporating ESG risks into credit analysis can lead to better investment decisions, as it provides for a more holistic understanding of an issuer. At BlueBay, we view ESG analysis both as a key part of our investment risk management framework, so that we have holistic oversight of risks, and also as a potential alpha source within the investment decision-making process.
Furthermore, investors are telling us that ESG is important for them, and they want us to help them address global environmental and social challenges, and avoid investing in issuers which do not take appropriate account of ESG matters.