Environmental, social and corporate governance linked debt instruments
View Patent ↗Systems and techniques for structuring and analyzing a fixed-income security are disclosed. The fixed-income security includes a coupon that provides at least a variable rate of interest payment over a time interval. The variable rate of interest payment may be based at least in part on a set of environmental, social, and governance (“ESG”) goals defined for an issuer over the time interval. A set of ESG values associated with performance of the issuer and corresponding to the set of ESG goals may be reported, independently audited, and used to determine the variable rate of interest payment provided by the security.
1. A computer-implemented method comprising:
receiving a set of values corresponding to a set of Environmental, Social, and Corporate Governance (ESG) goals, over a network at a submission module maintained on a server comprising a processor and memory, the set of values associated with an entity;
auditing the set of values corresponding to the set of ESG goals, the auditing performed by an audit module maintained on the server and configured to include accounting standards processes for use in the auditing;
normalizing the set of audited values corresponding to the set of ESG goals by one or more predefined metrics;
publishing the normalized set of values corresponding to the set of ESG goals on an electronic data store; the publishing performed by a publication module maintained on the server; the published set of values on the electronic data store being available to an investor device;
associating the set of normalized values corresponding to the set of ESG goals with a security by a cash flow module maintained on the server, the set of ESG goals further associated with a first time frame, the security providing a first cash flow dependent upon accomplishment of the set of ESG goals over the first time frame;
determining automatically by the cash flow module whether the entity accomplished the set of ESG goals over a first time interval, said determining further comprising comparing the set of normalized values corresponding to the set of ESG goals from the electronic data store to a set of pre-defined ESG goals received from an issuer device;
adjusting automatically by the cash flow module, the first cash flow based on the determination of whether the entity accomplished the set of ESG goals over the first time interval; and
publishing the adjusted cash flow in the electronic data store.
2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising providing a second cash flow dependent upon a maturity date associated with the security.
3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the second cash flow is subsequent to the first cash flow.
4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
computing a first fee amount for publishing the set of values corresponding to the set of ESG goals.
5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the first fee amount is based on at least a scheduled portion of the first cash flow.
6. The method of claim 4 , wherein the first fee amount is a fixed fee amount.
7. The method of claim 4 , wherein the first fee amount varies based on an issue amount associated with the security.
8. The method of claim 4 , wherein at least a portion of the first fee amount is based on the set of ESG goals.
9. The method of claim 4 , further comprising computing a second fee amount for auditing the set of values corresponding to the set of ESG goals.
10. The method of claim 9 , wherein the second fee amount is a fixed fee amount.
11. The method of claim 9 , wherein the second fee amount varies based on an issue amount associated with the security.
12. The method of claim 9 , wherein at least a portion of the second fee amount is based on the set of ESG goals.
13. The method of claim 9 , wherein the second fee amount is based on at least a scheduled portion of the first cash flow.
14. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first cash flow comprises a fixed rate portion and a variable rate portion, the fixed rate portion being a pre-defined payment amount and the variable rate portion being a variable payment amount dependent upon whether the entity accomplished the set of ESG goals over the first time interval.
15. The method of claim 8 , further comprising transmitting at least one portion of the first cash flow to an auditor and at least a second portion of the first cash flow to a publisher.