Sustainable Finance Ratings as the Latest Symptom of "Rating Addiction" Using the widely accepted but rarely articulated concept of 'rating addiction', this piece aims to examine the recent and concerted entrance of the credit rating agencies into the sustainable finance field against the backdrop of 'rating addiction'. Once the concept of 'rating addiction' is positioned, the effects of the addiction can be clearly witnessed by even just a cursory glance at the history of the credit rating agencies, particularly their recent history. On that basis, this article provides a warning for regulators and the field with regards to the potentially negative effect that credit rating agencies can have upon the evergrowing and socially-important sustainable finance sector. Additionally, assessing the aptitude of the agencies in this sector, in comparison to the sector's utilisation of their products, may provide further evidence of a system addicted to ratings. 'symptoms' of what has been termed 'rating addiction'. The term 'rating addiction' can be directly traced to a couple of sources in the literature. Chronologically, the IMF cited in a report (IMF 2010) a paper from Philippe Bergevin in 2010 which was entitled Addicted to Ratings: The Case for Reducing Governments' Reliance on Credit Ratings (Bergevin 2010), within which the author suggests that reducing the reliance that regulators have on credit ratings may reduce the 'skewed economic incentives' that have been built into the credit rating process. Then, in 2013, Marc Flandreau and Joanna K. Sławatyniec examined the 'regulatory licence' principle which was suggested by Frank

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Purpose Sigma Ratings is a new entrant to the anti-money laundering (AML) marketplace and seeks to alleviate some of the inherent flaws within the AML regime. This paper aims to examine those flaws and ask whether Sigma may succeed in this bourgeoning marketplace. Design/methodology/approach This paper is based upon a normative methodology, which takes place after reviewing the relevant literature to examine the potential success for Sigma Ratings. Findings The paper finds that there is indeed a position for Sigma Ratings in the marketplace, and that it may alleviate key issues within the AML regime. Originality/value The paper presents Sigma Ratings to the literature for the first time and positions this against an examination of the role of banks within AML – Sigma’s main demographic.

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