Headquartered in New York City, S&P Global Market Intelligence is a division of S&P Global, a $6 billion company that provides essential intelligence for individuals, companies, and governments to help support sound decision-making. S&P Global is a leading provider of transparent and independent credit ratings, data, benchmarks, and analytics to the capital and commodity markets worldwide. In addition to S&P Global Market Intelligence, the company’s divisions include: S&P Global Ratings, S&P Dow Jones Indices, and S&P Global Platts, accounting for approximately 20,000 employees across 31 countries.
S&P Global has been actively investing in advanced technologies to capitalize on the rapid advancements that can positively impact its analytics, data and solutions. Two recent acquisitions include Panjiva and Kensho, both leaders in providing cutting-edge capabilities through big data and artificial intelligence (AI). These technologies are offering new ways to harness the predictive power of alternative data for both early-warning signals, as well as long-term risk indicators, especially in situations where financial data is limited. S&P Global Market Intelligence has embraced these advanced technologies that facilitate automation and scale to develop sentiment algorithms. These algorithms provide new insights into company performance based on broad datasets that would prove difficult for analysts to evaluate otherwise, given their sheer size.
The team at S&P Global Market Intelligence understands the importance of high-quality, indispensable data and how this can be turned into actionable strategies. Combining detailed financial and industry information, research, and news with powerful analytic tools, the team helps clients thoroughly evaluate market risks and opportunities, identify investment ideas, assess competitive dynamics, perform valuations, and much more. Among other areas, professionals in Asset Management firms, Commercial and Investment Banks, Insurance Companies, and Government Agencies benefit from essential insights to help drive their organizations forward.
An Experienced Leader at the Helm
Martina Cheung is the President of S&P Global Market Intelligence with nearly 20 years of experience spearheading innovation strategies and transformations. Her talent for uncovering and operationalizing high-potential opportunities has delivered short-term gains and long-term growth to the organization. This dynamic leader also serves on S&P Global’s Operating Committee, which is responsible for setting strategy and driving growth and performance for the company overall.
After being appointed Executive leader for Risk Services in 2015, Martina was tasked with building additional team capabilities and developing a three-year strategic plan focused on enhanced product development and go-to-market strategies. Her vision included the introduction of an array of new analytic products and the ongoing fostering of a culture of creativity and innovation.
In addition, Martina assumed responsibility for defining the strategy and executing the roadmap for several S&P Global enterprise investments, including Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) products and services, and data for small and mid-sized companies (SMEs).
Distinctive Services Designed For Client Workflows
The Risk Services business unit offers data, analytics, and workflow solutions to provide clients with the information and tools they need to support their specific job functions. This includes credit risk, portfolio management, underwriting, supply chain management, and commercial lending, among other roles.
- Data covers a wide range of credit risk indicators, including credit ratings from S&P Global Ratings and risk indicators on unrated companies from S&P Global Market Intelligence. The information can be accessed via multiple delivery channels, including data feeds, API’s, and the company’s robust web-based platform.
- Analytics provides quantitative credit risk indicators for private and public companies, plus Scorecards that utilize an expert-judgment approach. These capabilities support credit, fundamental, quantitative, and portfolio analysis, as well as research.
- Workflow capabilities enable clients to have consistent processes across their daily activities and teams. Using the S&P Capital IQ platform, clients can undertake market and company surveillance, in-depth company and security analysis, underwriting, valuations, credit research, and more.
The combination of data, analytics, and workflow management tools delivers a powerful suite of products. Risk Services’ Credit Analytics is one example of a well-recognized solution set that brings the three components together to support robust counterparty credit risk management, covering millions of public and private companies.
Forging New Pathways in Risk Assessments
Martina believes that firms must disrupt themselves before someone else does it for them, and constantly looks for new ways to do things. She and her team have developed advanced solutions through extensive market outreach, interviews, and testing.
Working closely with S&P Global Market Intelligence’s market segment teams, such as Investment Banking and Financial Institutions, she and her colleagues look to uncover evolving client needs to help build best-of-breed offerings that can fill market gaps. By continually expanding the firm’s financial data coverage and investing in deep proprietary content, such as supply chain insights from Panjiva, S&P Global Market Intelligence stays focused on its goal of being a market leader across multiple areas. This will help clients simplify their external relationships and work more efficiently with fewer providers.
Looking Forward
Martina continues to focus on the expansion of Risk Services’ AI and data visualization capabilities, drawing upon S&P Global’s dedicated innovation team of data scientists who proactively explore fintech and technology partnerships. In addition, as clients increasingly look towards the SME space as an area of opportunity, she strives to introduce additional methods of risk assessment for these smaller-sized, less data-rich firms.
Ongoing collaboration with other parts of S&P Global will help to advance S&P Global’s ESG capabilities. The markets of the future will thrive on the sustainable business and investment decisions of today. Given that, ESG insights are crucial to help decision-makers mitigate risk, plan strategy, and foster innovation to remain competitive and fuel long-term growth. An important step in enhancing the firm’s ESG offering was the 2016 acquisition of Trucost, a leader in carbon and environmental data and risk analysis. Martina is driving further investment to expand Trucost’s capabilities to better inform sustainable growth in global markets. At the same time, Trucost’s ESG analysis has become integral to the growth of S&P Global’s capabilities in this area.
In addition, Martina feels that academic partnerships play a critical role in innovation, while developing students by giving them real-life problems to solve. S&P Global sponsored a program with Columbia University where graduate-level students worked alongside firm employees to develop quantitative models for Comprehensive Capital Analysis and Review and Dodd-Frank Act Stress. Both models require U.S. banks to test the adequacy of their capital reserves for federal regulators. Through the project, students learned about credit risk, regulatory requirements, and how banks perform stress analysis. Martina strongly believes that these talent development initiatives are critical to nurturing the people and culture needed to drive innovation in the Risk Services business and position her group for future business success. She is highly focused on seeking opportunities to collaborate with outside partners to propel her group to the next level.
