Solutions: Financial Services
Human rights due diligence and ESG risk management for responsible investment and lending.
The ProblemThe financial services sector plays a pivotal role in directing capital toward sustainable development and economic growth worldwide.
However, financial institutions face significant human rights and environmental risks through their investment portfolios, lending activities, and client relationships.
These risks include financing projects linked to forced labour, land grabbing, environmental destruction, community displacement, complicity in corruption, and support for entities involved in human rights abuses or conflict financing.
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We support financial institutions to assess inherent and residual risks, understand adverse impacts, and evaluate the maturity of their responsible investment and lending practices. Our approach combines proprietary data analytics with systematic verification methodologies, delivering thorough yet pragmatic due diligence tailored to your business needs and regulatory requirements.
Support banks and financial institutions to assess human rights and environmental risks across portfolios and lending activities
Deliver pragmatic, ESG-focused due diligence informed by extensive experience across diverse sectors and geographies
Provide clear, tailored reporting aligned with regulatory requirements and stakeholder expectations
Help asset managers and institutional investors identify and mitigate human rights, social, and environmental risks linked to investee companies and projects
Conduct client due diligence and enhanced due diligence (EDD) for high-risk sectors, jurisdictions, and transactions
Support financial institutions in assessing ESG and human rights risks in M&A transactions, project finance, and syndicated lending
Enable investment teams to understand and manage sector-specific risks across diverse portfolio holdings
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Aseri is regularly asked to produce insight reports and data-driven research and analysis for a wide range of financial sector clients.
Our expert team of responsible investment specialists and data analysts have access to world-leading data insights which can help teams with:
Informed decision making on complex topics using our in-depth data platform covering sector risks, geographic exposures, and emerging regulatory requirements
Regulatory gap analysis to support internal compliance programs and help your risk teams understand alignment with requirements including CSDDD, mandatory HRDD legislation, and ESG disclosure regulations
Develop inherent risk assessments and risk appetite frameworks for investment and lending activities
Develop bespoke client and counterparty reports to understand potential risks, adverse impacts, and gap assessments against expected standards and sector benchmarks
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Client and Counterparty Due Diligence - We deliver independent HRDD and ESG due diligence assessments of clients, investee companies, project sponsors, and counterparties across high-risk sectors. Our assessments include:
Red flag evaluation for severe human rights abuses including forced labour, child labour, land rights violations, and corruption
Inherent risk assessments using our proprietary risk framework—evaluating sector-specific risks, geographic exposure, business model vulnerabilities, and adverse impact likelihood
Country and sub-national risk classification revealing province-level and district-level risk variation that national classifications miss
Supply chain and operational risk verification
Clear gap analysis and risk mitigation recommendations
Strategic Risk Advisory and Bespoke Reports:
Sector-specific inherent risk assessments for high-risk industries including extractives, agriculture, manufacturing, and infrastructure
Comprehensive human rights and environmental risk profiling for portfolio companies and lending exposures
Conflict-affected and high-risk area (CAHRA) assessments for project finance and direct investments
Historical legacy issues and reputational exposure assessments
Labour rights conditions and modern slavery risk exposure
Risk integration into credit decisioning, investment analysis, and portfolio management
Development of risk-based HREDD frameworks and priority action plans
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We deliver investment and credit team training to better understand human rights and environmental risks, internal risk and compliance capacity building, as well as comprehensive HRDD training. Our specialists have extensive experience in financial sector ESG integration and have delivered training to institutions globally. We can:
Train your teams in the human rights, environmental, social and governance risks present across sectors and geographies, and how to identify and assess inherent and residual risks
Help your institution implement improvement actions needed to strengthen HRDD systems and close gaps identified during assessments and regulatory reviews
Provide the tools and frameworks to enhance risk management in line with international standards, regulatory requirements, and responsible finance principles
Build internal capacity for ongoing HRDD implementation and continuous improvement across investment and lending functions
We’re experts in balancing the demands of regulation and investment. It’s all about building confidence through effective strategy.
The SolutionWe work with banks, asset managers, pension funds, private equity firms, and insurance companies to implement robust human rights due diligence (HRDD) and environmental, social and governance (ESG) risk management systems that meet regulatory requirements while strengthening investment performance and stakeholder confidence.
Our approach combines proprietary data intelligence with deep financial sector expertise to deliver practical, effective solutions.
Why our approach works
We understand the big picture.
We connect the dots between all aspects of the financial services sector, so we’re not working in isolation with one set of regulations or one part of the value chain.
Data-driven insight.
We use proprietary data, so our analysis is specific to your circumstances and needs. Our data platform is bespoke and comprehensive, allowing us to tailor our strategy for any business case.
Balancing compliance with performance.
Regulatory compliance doesn’t need to be a burden - we approach compliance as a crucial strategic pillar to ensure effective, sustainable and ethical business so you can trade and seek investment with confidence.