HONG KONG SAR - Media OutReach - 8 March 2022 - Benchmark is proud to announce the Grand Winners of its 18th Providers of the Year!
The Awards represented a meticulous, methodical process and characterized the diligence of more than 60 jurors coming from Private Banks, Family Offices, Consultants, and EAMs. The 51 judges and gatekeepers occupying 235 seats over three days were involved in 47 sessions delivered by 57 senior fund house representatives and supported by a thorough due diligence questionnaire focused on the five key pillars, 48 KPIs, and 438 attributes, with independent sustainability data supported by BlueOnion. 51 jurors have attended the annual Gatekeepers Forum, where 5 to 6 jurors will meet the CIO or Portfolio Manager face to face to drill down into their investment process and ESG performance.
Provider of the Year – companies are assessed by the breadth of winnings across different investment and operational capabilities rather than simply hindsight returns. Weights are allocated to four award categories: House 40%, Sustainability 30%, Manager of the Year 20%, and Quantitative winnings 10%.
FSSA Investment Managers ("FSSA") has, once again, been crowned Provider of the Year (Offshore) 2021. The two runners-up for this grand award were Fidelity International ("Fidelity") and BNP Paribas Asset Management ("BNP Paribas"). FSSA has received an overwhelming applaud from the jurors for its style consistency and how they achieve returns with humility and care. The company earned the highest scoring for its stewardship and corporate quality, ESG integration, and an excellent process for responsible investing. A special commendation to BNP Paribas for their above-average and superior ESG integration and stewardship quality with extraordinary impact thematic strategies. The other runner-up, Fidelity, has shown an excellent and diverse investment return and risk management throughout various investment classes.
BEA Union Investment Management ("BEA Union") is crowned Provider of the Year (Onshore) 2021 for the first time, with the two runners-up, Zeal Asset Management ("Zeal") and E Fund Management (Hong Kong) ("E Fund"), for this grand category. Judges are commending BEA Union's rigorous risk management being key to the investment process while respecting fiduciary functions and mandates being executed. The committee praised the company for its functional improvement on ESG integration, despite being in a new area where onshore providers struggle to adapt and integrate. Special commendations are given to Zeal's consistent and long-term evolving teams and its pragmatic investment approach. E Fund, the other runner-up, has demonstrated material improvement from last year by putting dynamic focus towards the heart of the portfolio.
"I am excited to see more asset managers, especially the boutique and second-tier managers (by AUM), adopting a more responsible investing approach, despite business disruptions under an ongoing pandemic. While some managers are still studying whether ESG is financially material, our platform, BlueOnion, tells us that higher returns and higher ESG are getting more correlated and convincing by the day," says investor activist organizer Elsa Pau.

About Benchmark Fund of the Year Awards

The 18th Benchmark Fund of the Year Awards organized by WealthAsia Media ("WAM") has gained a solid industry reputation for running distinguished awards safeguarded by powerful gatekeepers from global institutions. The awards can be interpreted as a buy-side driven and a client-centric initiative. Banks' gatekeepers and service users such as asset owners will dominate the awards' decision-making process. The awards also raise awareness of responsible investing and drive better practices in responsible and sustainable investing.

Benchmark Fund of the Year Awards
About BlueOnion
BlueOnion is Benchmark's research tool that empowers institutional investors, asset owners, and private banking gatekeepers to find, screen, and monitor the sustainable performance of over 290K mutual funds covering 40K+ issuers in 99 countries, with over 300 key indicators spanning 22 sectors and 130 industries. It uses the three-lens approach by peeling back the funds' layers in their Investment returns, Sustainability performance, and forward-looking Qualitative capabilities. BlueOnion holds managers accountable for their ESG strategies by analyzing their sectors, industries, and investment/divestments actions to validate that they follow their stated ESG integration philosophies. The data-driven process for outcomes reflects how they have taken materiality issues of specific ESG issues into their investment processes. www.BlueOnion.today
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About the Gatekeepers Forum

The virtual event in 2021 involved 47 sessions delivered by 57 senior fund house representatives, with 51 judges and gatekeepers occupying 235 seats over three days. The Gatekeepers' Forum is a sub-set of the judging process, with four to six jurors holding a two-way conversation with the Manager of a contesting strategy. The Forum allows the contestants' CIO or Portfolio Manager to showcase how they are running a profitable system and respond to technical questions raised by the gatekeepers. The Gatekeepers' Forum is a highly curated platform that connects both the buy and sell-side of funds and empowers gatekeepers from Private Banks, Institutions, Foundations, Single and Multi-Family Offices to look under the hood before they invest.

The Gatekeeper Forum 2021

About WealthAsia Group

WealthAsia Group is a profit-for-purpose organization – a purpose-driven organization with a mission to drive best practices in the finance community by emphasizing social responsibility and advocating for investors' protection. Our business model focuses on industry benchmarking, assessment, and ranking to help financial institutions improve.

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