Italy

SRI in Italy is a relatively recent wave, the first fund being created in 1997. Now Italy is the second largest market as far as mutual funds are concerned – although very concentrated, with the first 3 funds accounting almost two third of the total AuM.

The situation is very different in the institutional investment market. Pension funds are still very small and struggling with a regulatory framework that has been changed several times in the last few years. With the recent reform (2005), that has also introduced a disclosure obligation on SEE aspects, the system is expected to have more stability and start growing steadily.

Some facts about the Italian market:

  • SRI Market Size1 : € 2,679 million in AuM for Italian mutual funds; € 99.2 million average mutual fund size; 63.6% are equity funds. Pioneer Obbligazionario Euro Corporate Etico is the second largest SRI fund in Europe, with € 984 million AuM. SRI market is very concentrated, the first three asset managers having around 80% of market share.
  • Influential actors: due to recent pension system reform, pension funds are expected to boost the SRI institutional market dramatically. In the retail sector, Pioneer IM, San Paolo IMI AM and Etica sgr are the most active players.
  • Leading Strategies: negative and positive screening in relation with social, environmental and ethical criteria is still the most used strategy. Investors are rather reluctant to engage listed companies, particularly through to the exercise of voting rights. There is a convergence between SEE and corporate governance issues.
  • Number of funds2 : 21 investment funds in 2003, 27 in 2005 with a 27% growth in two years.
  • Legal Milestones: Pension Reform (decreto 252/05) introducing disclosure obligations for p ension funds, that shall give written information on whether and how social, environmental or ethical considerations are taken into account in the selection, retention and realisation of investments, as well as in relation to the exercise of the rights (including voting rights) attaching to investments.
  • SIF (yes/no): yes

1 Fonte: Avanzi Sri Research, “Green, Social and Ethical Funds in Europe”, 2005 Review. Data as of June, 30

2 Fonte: Avanzi Sri Research, “Green, Social and Ethical Funds in Europe”, 2005 Review. Data as of June, 30

For more information on SRI in Italy please visit: http://www.finanzasostenibile.it/