Asset management and sustainability: Evidence from Italy
Survey on engagement of institutional and non-institutional investors on ESG criteria

S. Anchino, A. Ciavarella, P. Deriu, F. Fiore, S. Nocella, M. Tambucci, A. Turi;
with the cooperation of G. Carotenuto, D. Gariboldi, S. La Civita, E. Levantini, A. Russo

Abstract
This report presents the results of a survey addressed to asset managers operating in Italy (and members of Assogestioni). The Survey aims at investigating the level of ESG factors integration into investment strategies and stewardship activities, the methodologies applied, the rationale behind the application of sustainable investment criteria, the organiza-tional arrangements adopted to this end, the existence of any barriers to such application as well as the quality of the sustainability (or non-financial) reporting provided by the issuers.
The Survey shows a widespread awareness of the importance and centrality of sus-tainability issues among the asset managers interviewed, who largely integrate ESG criteria into their investment and engagement strategies, even though processes and tools put in place are not homogeneous, mainly depending on the size of the respondents. Among the barriers to the integration of sustainable investment criteria into policies and strategies, lack of a mandatory reporting standard and certified ESG data was highlighted. Also for this reason, the non-financial reporting duties currently in force are considered inadequate by half of the respondents. Looking at the actions suggested, there is a general consensus that a greater standardization of reporting duties and the adoption of a common set of KPIs by all issuers are needed to remove the critical issues highlighted.  
 

Authors
This paper was edited by the members of the Working Group "Engagement", under the CONSOB Steering Committee on Sustainable Finance. The group was led by Francesca Fiore, Corporate Governance Division (fr.fiore@consob.it).
The authors thank Commissioner Anna Genovese, Chair of the aforementioned Steering Committee for useful comments. The authors also thank Assogestioni for its help and, in particular, Manuela Mazzoleni for her valuable support in the preparation and distribution of the survey. Finally, the authors thank Beatrice Mancini for her valuable help in the analysis of the data. The opinions expressed in this document are the authors' personal views and are in no way binding on CONSOB. In citing this paper, it is therefore not correct to attribute the arguments expressed therein to CONSOB.