Judges of the private debt manager of the year award highlighted NN IP's "broad offering in alternative credit, with a long-term track record and significant funds invested".

The affiliated manager, currently in the process of being bought by Goldman Sachs Asset Management, made its first private debt investment 30 years ago. But the 38 investment professionals that oversee over €56bn in the asset class today across five platforms of private structured credit, mortgages and ABS, infrastructure, commercial real estate, and corporate loans now look forward to greater ESG integration into the asset class that numerous yield-hungry insurers are investigating.

NNIP sees underwriters challenged by sourcing, structuring and evaluating the risk of private debt allocations. It adds ESG is tougher to integrate into private debt, as a lack of comparable data and transparency complicates managers' task of demonstrating progress.

But integrating it can uncover aspects often overlooked in traditional analysis, it says, illuminating both risks and opportunities, and improving an investment's sustainability profile, and private debt allows for active engagement with the borrowers. In September 2020 NNIP Alternative Credit launched 10 ESG sector scorecards, following its own materiality framework, as well as the EU Taxonomy, EC SFDR as well as the UN sustainable development goals, amongst others.

For trade finance for instance – supporting an activity key to addressing poverty and hunger - NNIP can analyse not just commodity goods transported, but also the country of origin and the supply chain, to identify risks and opportunities.