Fitch invests in AI start-up to better detect bank misconduct Credit rating agency to expand how it evaluates lenders’ riskiness amid raft of scandals Mon, Jan 18, 2021, 13:33 Updated: Mon, Jan 18, 2021, 13:35 Fitch last year helped lead a $6 million (€4.9 million) funding round for Paris-based Sigma Partners. Photograph: Getty Images
Fitch Ratings has struck a partnership with a French artificial intelligence start-up as it seeks to improve its early detection of misconduct after a spate of high-profile banking scandals around the world. Fitch, one of the big three credit rating agencies globally, last year helped lead a $6 million (€4.9 million) funding round for Paris-based Sigma Partners, which runs software that scours publicly available information for corporate governance risks. It is now a minority owner of the business.