Italian banking group BFF has developed and introduced four new benchmarks for pension funds’ sustainable investing, based on Articles 8 and 6 of the Sustainable Finance Disclosures Regulation (SFDR), it announced yesterday.
The new indices help pension funds assess the performance of their sub-funds’ investments in line with ESG standards, according to Article 8 of the SFDR, or integrating sustainability risks according to Article 6 of the regulation, BFF added.
Enrico Tadiotto, vice president transaction services at BFF Bank, said: “The indices expand the basket of benchmarks created by BFF, that are designed to synthetically represent the performance of the Italian pension industry [as a whole], benefitting market operators and institutional investors.”
According to BFF, 60% of the sub-funds under management by industry-wide pension funds integrate sustainability risks into investment decisions, 16.7% (28.8% based on assets) promote social and/or environmental characteristics, and none pursue sustainable investment goals.
Among open pension funds (Fondi Pensione Aperti), just over half of the sub-funds integrate sustainability risks into investment decisions, around one third (44.5% based on assets) promote social and/or environmental characteristics, and none pursue sustainable investment goals, it added.
Sub-funds of open pension funds investing according to Article 8 and 6 of the SFDR have recorded last year returns on par with those following the General BFF FPA Index (7.34% vs 7.40%).
Sub-funds of industry-wide pension funds investing in line with Article 8 of the SFDR have recorded in 2023 better performances than those following the general index (7.72% vs 6.96%), while sub-funds investing in line with Article 6 recorded lower returns compared with the general index of 6.91%, BFF said.
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