Connecting ag lenders, investors and Farm Credits to climate risks impacting portfolios

AQUAOSO launches groundbreaking data acclimation tool – A powerful suite of analytics and data management tools, GIS Connect is an opportunity for the agricultural finance sector to create long-term resilience for water and climate risk

DENVER , CO (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — AQUAOSO Technologies, a public benefit corporation focused on water risk technology that reduces financial risk for lenders and investors, today announced the launch of their proprietary tool, GIS Connect, a map-based data acclimation platform.

Data acclimation is geospatially contextualizing company data with integrated physical and material risk data, such as water and climate, for the purpose of better understanding the impact of risks on loans, investments and customers’ businesses. It is a necessary initial step when de-risking portfolios amid the rapidly increasing water and climate risks of today.

A purpose-built decision tool, GIS Connect is indispensable to financial institutions because it makes it easier to identify and understand water-related issues and mitigate climate impacts. By viewing datasets on a single map and presenting it in an easily digestible format,  agricultural finance professionals can easily understand the data. Designed from years of experience and expertise in collaborating with agricultural lenders, investors and Farm Credits, GIS Connect’s highly secure, easy-to-use interface empowers them to close loans faster, improve borrower relationships and comply with constantly changing regulations.

“Representing a tremendous advance in the necessary evolution of fully digitized and integrated banking data, GIS Connect activates bank data instead of letting it go static. Our tool truly transforms bank data into actionable insights — insights our customers use to de-risk their portfolios,” said Chris Peacock, CEO of AQUAOSO. “Empowered with a deeper understanding of parcel-specific vulnerability to physical water and climate risks via data acclimation, financial institutions can unlock the portfolio, loan and investment data necessary to adequately prepare for climate risk analytics.”

By integrating financial institution-owned portfolio data and borrower data with third-party water and climate risk data, GIS Connect allows users to easily search integrated data sets, such as loans, collateral and appraisals, in a single geospatial view. Beyond helping address climate reporting, quantifying risk exposure, and implementing risk planning and mitigation strategies, GIS Connect can help financial institutions:

• Streamline and accelerate due diligence.
• Easily create ESG and executive reports.
• Decrease data entry, redundancy and errors.
• Increase efficiency and decrease costs with collaborative workflow management.
• Complete multiparcel searches.
• Securely integrate data with third-party data sets.
• Add notes and attachments to maps, reports and custom data fields.
• Simply compare and discover cohorts of suppliers, borrowers and sales.
• Monitor changes over time on a digital map to make truly informed investment decisions.

“With regulations increasing as our climate continues changing, and with climate-induced material risks growing in frequency and severity, GIS Connect empowers financial institutions with the information necessary to reveal the impact of risks on loans, investments and customers’ businesses,” continued Peacock. “Our innovative data platform securely integrates loan and investment data with AQUAOSO’s proprietary water and climate risk database to make understanding a complete portfolio in terms of dollars, current loans, acres, risks between different crop types, risk scores and more easier than ever. At the end of the day, financial institutions need GIS Connect and data acclimation to be a part of their core tech stack.”

For more information about how AQUAOSO’s new GIS Connect tool empowers Farm Credits, ag lenders and investors, food brands, and insurance companies to future-proof their operations in the face of a changing climate, visit aquaoso.com.

About AQUAOSO Technologies

AQUAOSO is home to the data acclimation platform, GIS Connect. The tool allows Farm Credit Associations, national and regional lenders, farmland investors and international food brands to geospatially manage their data in order to better understand the impact of risks on loans, investments and customers’ businesses. Designed from years of experience and expertise in collaborating with customers, GIS Connect’s highly secure, easy-to-use interface empowers them to close loans faster, improve borrower relationships and comply with constantly changing regulations and build resilience against water and climate risks in their portfolios. To view the latest white paper, click here. For more information, please visit AQUAOSO.com.