02/12/2021

An interest that, in the financial sphere, has become even more pressing and topical at the European level with the entry into force  last March 10 of the EU Regulation 2019/2088 SFDR (Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation) on sustainability disclosure in the financial services sector. Indeed, the new regulation provides a set of transparency rules to financial market participants, asset managers and advisors, which oblige them to explain how ESG policies are integrated into the process. Rules that, moreover, are set to become increasingly specific and binding in the near future.

In response to the information needs emerging from this profound change in the regulatory scenario, FIDA, an Italian group that boasts a leadership position in the collection, analysis and distribution of high-quality data and information on financial products, has created a specific tool called FIDA ESG RATING: the first asset management rating in the field of sustainability.

In is first release focusing on the  Italian market l, FIDA has created  a specific rating system, in line with the new European regulations.  As FIDA is now operating in several European countries, offering fund selection services to Investment advisors, private banks, institutional investors and fund selectors; the company is rapidly expanding its global fund coverage and will progressively issue its ESG survey to all Asset Management firms active in Europe.

To build the body of this new content set , FIDA has  issued a questionnaire to all  Italian and international management companies distributing products  in Italy. The  data collected from hundreds of international companies, helps define both the degree of sustainability of the management companies at their organizational level and also at the level of their actual portfolio investments.  

Alongside the methodology for evaluating the companies’ detailed investment portfolios, FIDA provides additional  analysis of the organizational procedures and policies adopted by managers to ensure that investment choices take sustainability into account. While portfolio analysis takes into account the results of the security selection activity in a timely manner, managers’ assessment, on the other hand, carries out a kind of ex ante analysis of the tools put in place to achieve these results. FIDA through this multi-step process  aims to meet its users' growing demands for transparency and better understanding of the funds’ actual investments.   Asset managers through their active participation to the survey, are provided with an excellent opportunities to make obvious and visible their commitment toward transparency .  Investors on the other hands, are benefiting from this transparency and from FIDA  rigorous  research processes .

“The activity of collecting, analyzing and distributing data and information on financial products requires, as a starting point, an in-depth knowledge of events, news and regulations that impact the market,” said Gianni Costan, CEO of FIDA Group. “Only in this way, in fact, is it possible to follow the evolution of the surrounding world and focus research and analysis on the most relevant variables, providing high quality results that are of concrete utility to users. This policy has always guided FIDA's activities, and has led us today, with FIDA ESG RATING, to create a tool capable of responding thoroughly and exhaustively to the information and analysis needs of operators with specific reference to Environmental, Social and Governance issues. An aspect, the latter, that far from being a mere complementary element is increasingly being confirmed as one of the fundamental and indispensable aspects for investments in the near future.”

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FIDA – Finanza Analisi Dati is a group specialized in the development of high-quality software applications dedicated to financial services; it also holds a leadership position in the Italian market for financial data distribution, with particular expertise in the collection, analysis, and distribution of data and information on mutual funds.