Sustainabiliy-conscious investments

The global financial system can decisively influence the future of the planet, directing capital flows towards sustainable activities to create an economy that respects the climate and the environment.

The Intesa Sanpaolo Group, a conscious interpreter of the change underway, has integrated ESG factors into its investment process in the belief that these elements, in addition to fostering sustainable economic and social development, can contribute positively to the financial results of customer portfolios, whilr reducing the risks.

With the 2022-2025 Business Plan, the Group aims to be a leader in Wealth Management, Protection & Advisory, with a strong commitment to the ESG field. It has declared among its objectives the expansion of the offer of sustainability-conscious products in asset management, its objective is the further development of Eurizon's proprietary ESG scoring and the development by Fideuram of consultancy services with an ESG focus.

UN SDGs SUPPORTED

The Group's asset management company offers investors a wide and diversified range of funds that integrate the consideration of sustainability risks into investment choices.
In 2023, Eurizon updated its Sustainability Policy by refining the ESG / SRI strategies adopted by the products and providing specific negative selection criteria (exclusion criteria), positive selection (integration of ESG factors) and commitment strategies. In particular, the methodology for verifying good governance practices by investees has been strengthened and the proprietary Eurizon ESG Score has also been extended to government issuers.

As an adherent of the Stewardship Principles for the exercise of administrative and voting rights in listed companies, the SGR pays particular attention to the policies implemented by issuers, stimulating discussion with the companies in which it invests through engagement activities, aware of the effectiveness of the active shareholding tool. In 2023, approximately half of the companies covered in engagement on ESG issues.

With the aim of outlining an approach aimed not only at orientation towards sustainability-conscious and responsible investments (SRI), but also at the integration of environmental, social and governance factors, the Division's product companies have adopted the Investment Policies Sustainable and Responsible. The policies involve all collaborators and are applied in company activities and investment processes. During 2023, some updates to the Sustainable and Responsible Investment Policies were carried out by Fideuram Asset Management SGR and Fideuram Asset Management (Ireland) dac, both through the inclusion of further exclusion criteria in the selection of financial instruments and through the strengthening of the concept of good governance of investee companies in compliance with the SFDR Regulation, verifying the presence of a minimum set of requirements in reference to the management structure, relations with staff and their remuneration and compliance with tax obligations.

Faced with a clientele strongly oriented towards sustainability, as emerges from the analysis of the responses to the Mifid questionnaires, and in line with the Group's objectives, the Division continues the dialogue with its product factories and with third-party partners with the aim of expanding the offer of sustainability-conscious investment solutions available to the Networks' consultants.

Also in 2023, the new offer was strongly focused on solutions that reflected the criteria adopted by the Division on ESG issues with an incidence of over 80% of the products pursuant to the articles. 8 and 9 SFDR on the total new products. Among the new features, which concerned the different product families (traditional and alternative funds, asset management, insurance investment products and placement of administered savings products):

- Willerfunds Private Suite, 5 new segments of the Fideuram Asset Management (Ireland) vehicle dedicated to the Intesa Sanpaolo Private Banking (ISPB) Network, created with leading international asset managers, of which 4 promote environmental and/or social characteristics (art.8 SFDR) and 1 with sustainable investment objectives (art.9 SFDR);

- FAI Progetto Italia II, created by Fideuram Asset Management SGR in collaboration with Eurizon Capital Real Asset SGR S.p.A. (ECRA), which allows you to invest in selected Italian companies and benefit from the tax incentives provided by the legislation on Alternative PIRs, with a strategy that integrates sustainability criteria and risks into the investment policy and is classified pursuant to art.8 SFDR.

In line with the objective declared in the 2022-2025 Business Plan relating to the development of dedicated ESG consultancy services, also during 2023 Fideuram integrated its service model based on personalized consultancy to manage the sustainability preferences of its clients. Engagement activities aimed at companies also continue to guarantee a sustainable offer and with a view to raising customer awareness on the issues.

In the area of ​​Asset Management, the Fogli Fideuram range has been enriched with new ESG lines, including Foglio Net-Zero Transition (art. 8 SFDR), and the investable universe of the Mio Foglio ESG has been enriched (art. 8 SFDR), which allows the customer to build his own portfolio starting from a specific list of strategies that present strong ESG characteristics (all classified articles 8 or 9 SFDR) or to use predefined model portfolios ("guided paths") broken down by level of risk and built according to the “High Conviction” approach, linked to the tactical selection of specific ESG themes.

¹ Which promote, among other characteristics, environmental and/or social ones, or which have sustainable investment objectives, classified pursuant to articles. 8 and 9 of the SFDR.