Domain A · Area A-CA3 · Interoperability, external requirements and reporting-basis claims
A.7Analyse market and counterparty information requirements
Working Draft version 1.1
Purpose and scope
This unit covers the capability to identify, classify and prioritise sustainability information requirements and requests from investors, lenders, stock exchanges, ratings and data providers, customers, procurement functions and other counterparties. It distinguishes legal, listing, contractual, proprietary and voluntary status and links each request to its user, decision context, evidence expectations, timing, confidentiality and public-disclosure implications.
Applied competency statement
Can identify, classify and prioritise sustainability information requirements and requests from investors, lenders, stock exchanges, ratings and data providers, customers, procurement functions and other counterparties, and distinguish their legal, contractual, proprietary and voluntary status.
Boundary and escalation
This unit does not provide investment advice, a credit or ESG rating, a securities-law opinion or authority to disclose confidential or market-sensitive information. Proprietary methodologies must be used within their access and licensing terms.
Key quality risks
Treating proprietary questionnaires or rating methodologies as law; failing to identify listing or contractual status; responding without evidence or approval; inconsistent answers across channels; disclosure of confidential or market-sensitive information; duplicate effort; score-driven distortion; and poor prioritisation of low-value or high-risk requests.
A.7-K01
Understands the roles and decision contexts of investors, lenders, stock exchanges, ratings and data providers, customers, procurement functions and other counterparties.
Knowledge Type: Market actors and users · Normative Weight: Core
A.7-K02
Understands the distinction between legal or listing requirements, contractual conditions, proprietary methodologies, voluntary requests and informal expectations.
Knowledge Type: Requirement status · Normative Weight: Core
A.7-K03
Understands common request features, including scope, entity and period, methodology, evidence, deadline, submission channel, scoring, confidentiality and approval.
Knowledge Type: Request characteristics · Normative Weight: Core
A.7-K04
Understands prioritisation criteria such as legal or contractual significance, user importance, financing or commercial relevance, public visibility, data burden, evidence readiness and risk.
Knowledge Type: Prioritisation · Normative Weight: Core
A.7-K05
Understands how market responses relate to public disclosures, investor communications, requirements registers, data reuse and cross-channel consistency.
Knowledge Type: Consistency and reuse · Normative Weight: Core
A.7-K06
Understands proprietary-methodology, confidentiality, market-abuse, legal, investment and ratings boundaries and when specialist review is required.
Knowledge Type: Professional boundary · Normative Weight: Core
A.7-S01
Inventory external sustainability information requirements and requests and capture owner, user, status, scope, period, deadline, evidence and approval needs.
Skill Type: Core applied capability · Observable Output or Result: Market and counterparty requirements inventory
A.7-S02
Distinguish legal, listing, contractual, proprietary, voluntary and informal requirements and identify the relevant decision context.
Skill Type: Classification · Observable Output or Result: Classified requirements inventory
A.7-S03
Assess significance, effort, evidence readiness, confidentiality, consistency and response risk and establish a defensible priority.
Skill Type: Prioritisation and risk · Observable Output or Result: Priority, evidence and consistency matrix
A.7-S04
Map requests to existing disclosures, data, owners and controls and coordinate a controlled submission calendar.
Skill Type: Coordination and reuse · Observable Output or Result: Submission and questionnaire calendar
A.7-S05
Explain response priorities and limitations and escalate market-sensitive, legally uncertain, unsupported or high-risk requests.
Skill Type: Communication and escalation · Observable Output or Result: Management decision and escalation record
A.7-B01
Does not manipulate reporting judgements solely to improve a score, ranking or questionnaire outcome.
Behaviour Type: Integrity of response · Non-compensable Requirement: No
A.7-B02
Protects confidential and market-sensitive information and does not provide inconsistent answers without a documented basis.
Behaviour Type: Consistency and confidentiality · Non-compensable Requirement: No
A.7-B03
Makes clear whether a request is mandatory, contractual, proprietary or voluntary and does not present a private methodology as an authoritative reporting standard.
Behaviour Type: Transparency of status · Non-compensable Requirement: No
Typical tasks · 4
A.7-T01
Collect and catalogue external requests, methodologies, deadlines, submission channels, users and owners.
Primary Output Link: A.7-O01
A.7-T02
Classify each request by status, decision context, scope, evidence, confidentiality and approval requirements.
Primary Output Link: A.7-O01
A.7-T03
Assess significance, effort, data readiness, consistency and risk and recommend response priorities.
Primary Output Link: A.7-O03
A.7-T04
Map requests to public disclosures and controlled data, establish the submission calendar and escalate high-risk cases.
Primary Output Link: A.7-O02
Level 1 · Foundation
A.7-L1-01
Can catalogue a defined set of external sustainability requests, record key metadata and distinguish obvious mandatory, contractual, proprietary and voluntary items.
Indicator Dimension: Task execution
A.7-L1-02
Can identify missing evidence, confidentiality or consistency concerns and escalate requests that cannot be answered through the established process.
Indicator Dimension: Quality, judgement and accountability
Level 2 · Practitioner
A.7-L2-01
Can independently classify, prioritise and coordinate a portfolio of investor, lender, exchange, ratings, customer or procurement information requests.
Indicator Dimension: Task execution
A.7-L2-02
Can map requests to controlled disclosures and data, resolve routine inconsistencies, explain response priorities and document evidence, approval and confidentiality requirements.
Indicator Dimension: Quality, judgement and accountability
Level 3 · Advanced Practitioner
A.7-L3-01
Can design or review enterprise governance for market and counterparty information requests across multiple entities, channels and decision contexts.
Indicator Dimension: Method design and review
A.7-L3-02
Can coordinate the resolution of high-risk conflicts involving public, proprietary and market-sensitive information, advise senior management on response strategy and challenge score-driven or unsupported submissions.
Indicator Dimension: Leadership and governance
Illustrative evidence · 6
A.7-E01
Market and counterparty requirements inventory with status, user, scope, deadline, owner and methodology fields.
Evidence Type: Work product
A.7-E02
Submission and questionnaire calendar linked to data, approval and publication dependencies.
Evidence Type: Work product
A.7-E03
Priority, evidence and consistency matrix showing response rationale and risk.
Evidence Type: Work product
A.7-E04
Request-to-disclosure and data mapping with confidentiality and approval trail.
Evidence Type: Process evidence
A.7-E05
Management, legal, investor-relations or other review of high-risk requests and the documented response.
Evidence Type: Review evidence
A.7-E06
Observed prioritisation and defence of a response strategy for conflicting market requests.
Evidence Type: Observed performance
Assessment · 3
A.7-A-L1
Classification exercise, situational judgement and limited inventory task
Correct status classification; completeness of metadata; identification of evidence, confidentiality and escalation needs.
A.7-A-L2
Portfolio case, response-priority matrix and written memorandum
Decision-context analysis; defensible prioritisation; mapping to public disclosures and evidence; consistency and risk control.
A.7-A-L3
Complex market case, portfolio and oral defence
Governance design; treatment of legal and proprietary status; response strategy; anti-gaming judgement; senior communication and defence.
| From | To | Type | Rationale |
|---|---|---|---|
| A.5 | A.7 | Change and lifecycle linkage | Changes in market, rating, lender and counterparty criteria, methods, versions or due dates should be assessed and incorporated into controlled external-request registers. |
| A.7 | A.1 | Feeds into | Each external request should be linked to its user, decision context and intended use. |
| A.7 | A.8 | Operational and workflow linkage | Material market and counterparty requirements should be incorporated into controlled traceability and claim processes where appropriate. |
| A.7 | D.4 | Feeds into | The request inventory informs controlled data and narrative requests, deadlines and approvals. |
| A.7 | G.4 | Strong linkage | Investor and lender requests often require explicit connectivity to strategy, risk and financial information. |
| A.7 | G.8 | Risk and control linkage | Responses must remain consistent with public disclosures, investor materials and other external channels. |
| Role | Target level | Relevance | Evidence expectation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Corporate Sustainability Reporting Practitioner | Foundation | Supporting? | A supervised or defined work sample showing correct application, traceability and recognition of escalation needs. |
| Sustainability Reporting Manager or Lead | Practitioner | Required? | A case or work sample demonstrating independent performance, documented judgement and a reviewable professional output. |
| Sustainability Reporting Adviser or Consultant | Advanced Practitioner | Role-defining? | A complex case or verified portfolio, supplemented by oral or observed defence, demonstrating design, challenge and governance capability. |
| Sustainability Data, Systems and Controls Specialist | Foundation | Supporting? | A supervised or defined work sample showing correct application, traceability and recognition of escalation needs. |
| Assurance Readiness and Reporting Quality Specialist | Foundation | Supporting? | A supervised or defined work sample showing correct application, traceability and recognition of escalation needs. |
| Investor, Capital Markets and Ratings Disclosure Specialist | Advanced Practitioner | Role-defining? | A complex case or verified portfolio, supplemented by oral or observed defence, demonstrating design, challenge and governance capability. |