Sustainable Investments
Through their investment policies, large institutional investors and credit institutions increasingly have the ability to positively influence the development of corporate social and environmental responsibility.
Aware of its role, Intesa Sanpaolo considers the integration of ESG factors into its investment process of fundamental importance, in the belief that these elements, as well as promoting economically and socially sustainable development, can contribute positively to the financial results of customer portfolios, while at the same time reducing their risks.
We are continuously striving to create new solutions that meet the needs of our clients to enhance the long-term growth of their investments, while respecting ESG sustainability criteria.
The European Union has also adopted a series of measures to direct capital flows towards sustainable investments so as to integrate sustainability into risk management and to promote transparency and longterm vision in economic and financial activity, such as the Regulation (EU) 2019/2088 (Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation) which governs disclosure in the field of sustainable finance, Regulation (EU) 2020/852 (so-called Taxonomy Regulation) on the establishment of a framework for the classification of activities considered sustainable, the Delegated Regulation (EU) 2021/1253 relating to the integration of customers’ sustainability preferences by investment firms, Delegated Directive (EU) 2021/1269 referring to the integration of sustainability factors into the product governance obligations and Delegated Regulation (EU) 2022/1288 concerning the content and presentation of investment sustainability information. This represents a further stimulus to reinforce the commitment of the Group to act as a responsible player in global change, also through the increasingly well-structured offer of sustainable investments and the availability of insurance solutions for the protection of customers, in line with European plans and regulations.
In 2022, the Group Companies continued with their project to bring their activity into line with the firstlevel legislation of the Regulation (EU) 2019/2088 (Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation) and the subsequent European provisions in the area of sustainable finance, in terms of policies, roles, responsibilities, processes and reporting.
The Intesa Sanpaolo Group intends in the 2022-2025 Business Plan to become leader in Wealth Management, Protection & Advisory, with a strong commitment to ESG; in particular, it has stated among its objectives an expansion of its ESG range of products in asset management, the further development of Eurizon’s proprietary ESG scoring with the extension of its use to new asset classes and the development by Fideuram of advisory services with an ESG focus.
In such a complex context, the Intesa Sanpaolo Group confirmed its leadership in sustainable investments in 2022 as well. The Group has reached a total of over 310 funds that promote environmental or social characteristics (among others) or that have sustainable investment objectives, classified pursuant to Articles 8 and 9 of the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation, for an equity of over 136 billion euro (180 funds for an equity of over 113 billion in 2021).
To bear witness to its awareness of its own active role in combating climate change, in November 2021 Intesa Sanpaolo announced to have joined, through Eurizon Capital SGR, Fideuram Asset Management SGR and Fideuram Asset Management (Ireland), to the Net Zero Asset Managers Initiative (NZAMI).
Following the adoption of the Net-Zero initiatives at the end of 2021, in 2022, Eurizon Capital SGR, Fideuram Asset Management SGR and Fideuram Asset Management Ireland dac determined their respective targets, approved by the individual Boards of Directors, following the publication - in the 2022-2025 Business Plan - of the 2030 objectives for the reduction of financed emissions relating to the main emissions-intensive sectors, attributable to membership of the Net Zero Banking Alliance.
Our offer portfolio therefore includes funds that apply selection criteria consistent with the United Nations Principles for Sustainable Investment, with the aim of activating sustainability dynamics in companies and in customer choices.
Intesa Sanpaolo Group is aware that it has a significant impact on this front as well. In particular, in providing advice, the Bank plays an important role in informing clients about financial products with sustainable investment characteristics or objectives.
This context includes information on the adverse impacts on sustainability factors and on the management of sustainability risk in the provision of investment advisory or insurance distribution services.
Sustainability, management of large portfolios, support for the real economy, digitalisation and internationalisation are the pillars on which the future growth strategies of our Division will be based.
EURIZON CAPITAL SGR
Eurizon Capital, offers investors a wide and diversified range of funds that integrate sustainability risks into their investment choices and as of 31/12/2022 it boasted assets of over 110 billion euro in funds that promote environmental or social characteristics, among others, or that have sustainable investment objectives, classified according to Articles 8 and 9 of Regulation (EU) 2019/2088 (SFDR), which represent about 54% of the assets managed in UCITS by the company.
With the signing in 2015 of the PRI (Principle for Responsible Investments) of the United Nations, Eurizon Capital has shown over the years particular attention to the policies implemented by the issuers in which it invests, in the belief that corporate governance policies and practices, which incorporate environmental aspects, and correct governance, are able to create value for all stakeholders in the long term.
Eurizon is also a signatory of the CDP and in 2014 has adhered to the Italian Stewardship Principles which define the procedures for exercising administrative and voting rights in listed companies.
During 2022, in light of the updates to the European regulatory framework on sustainable investments and in accordance with the provisions of Regulation (EU) 2019/2088 (SFDR), Eurizon updated its Sustainability Policy, supplementing its methods for selecting and monitoring the existing financial instruments. These methods provide for the application of specific processes for selecting financial instruments, appropriately graduated according to the characteristics and objectives of the individual managed products, which take into account ESG factors and SRI principles, in line with well-defined strategies. For example, confirming the asset management company’s growing commitment to fight climate change and in order to protect fragile ecosystems, during the year specific limitations/restrictions were introduced with respect to investment in issuers that generate more than 10% of their turnover from oil extraction through the exploitation of Oil Sands.
In 2022, the assessment of the main negative effects of investment choices on sustainability factors (so-called PAIs) and the definition of possible related mitigation actions became an integral part of Eurizon’s approach to sustainability. In this context, the asset management company adopted a specific framework that defines how PAIs (Principal Adverse Impacts) are taken into account within the assets managed, in accordance with the provisions of Regulation 2019/2088.
In 2022, Eurizon published and updated its Sustainability Report, which for the second year illustrates the actions undertaken by the asset management company in 2021 in implementation of the Sustainability Policy and the Commitment Policy.
To strengthen supervision of the sustainability of investments, Eurizon employes three structures that report to the Board of Directors:
ESG Committee: defines the proposals to be submitted to the Board of Directors on sustainable and responsible issues; monitors the exposure of assets against identified ESG indicators; monitors the escalation process for issuers deemed as “critical”
Sustainability Committee: collaborates with the Board of Directors to ensure the compliance of management choices with ethical principles for Ethical products. The Committee is independent andautonomous in relation to the Company and is made up of individuals with recognized integrity and morality
Donations Committee: oversees the devolution and charity activities of the Company
Il Chief Executive Officer formulates, with the support of the SRI Committee, proposals for the Board of Directors relating to the methods for selecting and monitoring financial instruments. Identifies the main negative effects of investment decisions.
Governance sees the presence of two further structures.
The ESG & Strategic Activism structure, ensures the dissemination and implementation of the sustainability principles of the investments, promoting the integration of environmental, social and governance factors in the Investment Process
The Long Term Sustainable Strategies structure, Identifies the lists related to issuers deemed as non “socially responsible” and issuers with a high exposure to ESG risks (so called “critical issuers”). Oversees the identification and prioritization of the main negative effects of investment choices on sustainability factors.
Furthermore: the Compliance & AML structure, that monitors the compliance with the Sustainability Policy of the Company and the Risk Management structure, that monitors the sustainability risk of the products under management.
The ESG and SRI principles are applied to all actively managed funds, both benchmark or flexible ones (ESG criteria are not applied to passive/indexed products or investment solutions such as, for example, funds of funds and retail portfolio and unit-linked management). ESG specialised products are created as part of the active management funds.
The engagement process
In 2022, Eurizon held a total of 1,034 meetings with 622 issuer companies; 538 of these meetings were in the form of engagement meetings, held with 342 different issuers. ESG-qualified engagements in the period numbered 271 and represented 50% of the total engagements held in the period (34% of total meetings), confirming Eurizon’s strong commitment to sustainability issues and the effectiveness of the active ownership engagement instrument.
In this context, it should be noted that as part of the Net Zero Asset Managers Initiative (NZAMI), in July 2022, the engagement activity began with the aim of contacting 155 companies by 2030, selected taking into consideration various factors, including the current level of carbon emissions, the estimated level for the future, the jurisdiction and the progress made to date with reference to the objectives of decarbonisation.
As regards the exercise of voting rights in shareholders’ meetings, in 2022, Eurizon took part in 254 shareholders’ meetings, 69 of which with selected companies listed on Borsa Italiana (27% of the total) and 185 in companies listed on international markets (73%), voting on 3,324 resolutions on the agenda.
In 2022, Eurizon published its Stewardship Report on engagement activities and the exercise of voting rights, reporting not only statistics on the activities carried out, but also on the most significant issues for the asset management company for the year 2022.
Under Regulation (EU) 2019/2088 (SFDR), at the end of 2022, the assets of the UCITS (Undertakings for Collective Investment in Transferable Securities) offered according to Articles 8 and 9 amounted to approximately 110 billion euro, representing a total of 54% of the assets managed in UCITS by Eurizon; in particular, the assets of the products categorised as Article 8 amounted to approximately 106.9 billion euro and the assets of the products categorised as Article 9 to approximately 3.3 billion euro.
The number of products managed according to these criteria is 232 (59 of which were launched in 2022) - considering the individual placement windows - referring to 32 different investment strategies.
In view of the growing commitment towards the Net Zero targets subscribed and published by the asset management company in 2022, the Company launched the first two Fondo Eurizon Step 50 Obiettivo Net Zero funds that invest in global companies committed to achieving the Net Zero objective by 2050.
In May 2022, the asset management company drafted the Green Bonds Impact Report regarding Eurizon Fund Absolute Green Bonds and Eurizon Fund Green Euro Credit for the analysis period (1 January 2021 – 31 December 2021), which details the results of the quantitative impact analysis and the contribution to the UN’s SDGs.
In particular, as regards the Eurizon Fund Absolute Green Bonds, it was calculated that for every million euro invested, the following results are obtained: 1,100 megawatt/hours produced, 239,441 litres of water saved or purified and a reduction of 776 tonnes of CO2. At the end of December 2022, the fund’s assets amounted to over 1.45 billion euro.
Eurizon, thanks to Eurizon Fund Absolute Green Bonds, was ranked first at the ESG Investing Awards 2022, in the Best ESG Investment Fund category and also received an award at the MainStreet Partners “ESG Champions” 2022.
Following the absorption of the Regulation (EU) 2019/2088, the entire investment process of the Company, also with reference to institutional mandates, has been adjusted in order to take ESG criteria into account in investment choices.
In particular, all mandates comply with exclusion criteria both with regard to SRI themes (with reference to issuers operating in non-socially-responsible sectors) and ESG themes (issuers considered critical with low ESG scores). A specific ESG report is regularly produced on a large number of mandates (47 mandates, 10.3 billion euro managed and a total of 28 customers), indicating the positioning of the portfolio with respect to the reference benchmark. In addition, Eurizon manages 18 mandates relating to 13 customers for approximately 5.8 billion euro on which specific investment restrictions are implemented and/or support is provided to customers in the engagement and corporate governance activities.
FIDEURAM INTESA SANPAOLO PRIVATE BANKING
The Private Banking Division considers the integration of environmental, social and governance factors into its business model of fundamental importance, in the belief that these elements, as well as promoting economically and socially sustainable development, can contribute positively to the financial results of customer portfolios, while at the same time reducing the risks.
In line with the objective stated in the 2022-2025 Business Plan relating to the Development of dedicated ESG advisory services, during 2022 Fideuram supplemented its service model based on customised advice to manage the sustainability preferences of its customers, which from July 2021 are collected by using the MiFID profiling questionnaire. Starting from August 2022, new features have been released to enhance the advisory platform and, in particular, a new display function has been introduced showing the composition of portfolios with respect to the investments’ environmental, social and sound governance characteristics and their adherence to the preferences expressed by the customer is monitored over time. When a proposal is made, a new feature also checks the consistency of the potential investments with respect to the sustainability preferences indicated by customers, measured in terms of ESG impact on the portfolio.. Also with a view to raising awareness and engaging customers on sustainability issues, 47 events were held in 2022 (28 face-to-face and 19 remotely), achieving a total of 11,150 participants (5,000 face-to-face and 6,150 remotely). In addition, with the aim of adequately training professionals, Fideuram launched a comprehensive ESG certification training program for bankers, with over 51,000 hours provided to 3,057 participants, and for employee private bankers and agents, with approximately 13,900 hours provided to over 1,040 participants.
With reference to the development and selection of new investment solutions, the process for selecting issuers and Product Companies was enhanced with analyses aimed at assessing their positioning with respect to parameters referring to ESG factors and sustainability risk management; furthermore, in compliance with Regulation (EU) 2019/2088 (SFDR), the criteria for classifying sustainable products (Articles 8 or 9) were adopted at a Group level, as applicable, and also the presence of sustainable/eco-sustainable investments (Art. 2 paragraph 17 of Regulation (EU) 2020/852) and the consideration of PAIs (Art. 7 of the SFDR). This approach strengthens the assessment of product sustainability during the selection phase and in monitoring the offered range of products over time.
Furthermore, pursuant to Articles 3 and 4 of the SFDR Regulation, Fideuram publishes on its institutional website the Policy document on the integration of sustainability risks and information on the main negative effects on sustainability factors in providing its investment advisory services and in the field of insurance distribution, through which it illustrates its policy with respect to the integration of environmental, social and governance (ESG) sustainability risks in company activities and processes for selecting issuers and defining the catalogue of financial products and delivering advisory services.
As at 31 December 2022, Fideuram Asset Management SGR and Fideuram Asset Management (Ireland) had a range of 197 products pursuant to Articles 8 and 9 of the SFDR Regulation, for a total of assets under management of 46.4 billion euro, divided as follows: 26.6 billion in investment funds, 17.2 billion in portfolio management schemes and the remaining share in insurance products. More specifically, the ESG offer in funds included 77 funds classified pursuant to Art. 8 and four classified pursuant to Art. 9 of the SFDR Regulation out of a total of 183 funds (26.6 billion euro equal to 61% of the total assets of the Funds).
As an addition to the Group’s product offering according to the Guided Open Architecture Approach to meet even the most sophisticated needs, customers can also find third-party ESG products on offer in the catalogue in collaboration with leading international investment houses. As at 31 December 2022, 57% of customers’ assets under management were classified pursuant to Articles 8 and 9 of the SFDR Regulation (27% in 2021).
These are products that promote, among others, social and environmental characteristics or a combination thereof. Furthermore, they have investment processes that involve selecting companies that comply with good governance practices in the conduct of their business. Precisely on the basis of these elements, the management companies, Fideuram Asset Management SGR and Fideuram Asset Management (Ireland), have brought these products with ESG strategies under art. 8 of Regulation (EU) 2019/2088 on disclosure relating to sustainability in the financial services sector ("SFDR").
- Fonditalia Ethical Investment: set up in 2012, this flexible product invests in bonds, equities and third-party funds. The investment decision-making process combines principles of social and environmental responsibility (ESG) on the comprehensive portfolio level and aims to have positive impacts on people and the environment through its individual investments.
- Fonditalia Millennials Equity: set up in 2018, it invests in equity instruments issued by companies with a business model geared to successfully capturing the consumer habits of the Millennials generation, particularly sensitive to ESG issues. The investment decision-making process involves both financial analysis and sustainability analysis based on environmental, social and governance criteria.
- GP Fideuram/Sanpaolo Invest Omnia: since 2018, a number of solutions have been developed dedicated to responsible investment, combining financial performance objectives with those seeking results in the social and environmental field. In addition to the front line product GP Ego Sustainable, there were two new arrivals in 2019, GP Ego High Conviction 70 and GP Ego High Conviction 100, products in the Ego Active family featuring an exposure to companies whose business model complies with sustainability criteria. Furthermore, within the range of the Ego Personal products – the customised funds devoted to top-level clients – a number of solutions have been designed to comply with ESG principles, also developing keynote themes relating to concepts of sustainability and ethics.
- GP Mix Sustainable: it involves an investment process geared to selecting financial instruments, using not only financial and economic criteria but also specific assessments regarding sustainability. The evaluation of countries and industries is based on criteria that recognise their contribution towards positive social development and protecting the planet.
- Fondo Pensione Fideuram: in 2019, the investment process of the Fund’s equity segments (Balance, Growth and Value) was enhanced with an element of sustainability. More precisely, certain exclusion criteria were introduced to identify those business models which presumably have a negative impact on society because of their business sector or due to their failure to comply with the principles of the United Nations Global Compact, above all in the areas of human rights, employment, the environment and combating corruption.
- Fideuram Vita Orizzonte Responsabile: leading solution in the internal fund for sustainable investment as part of the Unit Linked Fideuram Vita Insieme policy. It is a flexible, multi-asset fund that invests solely in financial instruments classed as sustainable and responsible and selected through an investment process that requires the use of environmental, social and governance criteria (ESG). The fund’s portfolio is based on the GP Ego Sustainable product and invests in financial instruments featuring high standards in the management of environmental, social and governance components.
Last updated 9 May 2023 at 14:51:24
