Investment fund data provider FE fundinfo has added new ESG features to its FE Analytics and FE CashCalc services to give financial advisers more information when choosing sustainable investments.

The company says poor provision of data on ESG funds is often one of the main barriers for advisers in selecting ESG funds.

FE says its upgrade to its ESG proposition for advisers will help address “growing pain points” around incorporating sustainability factors into investment advice.

Earlier this year, the company’s annual financial adviser survey found that although 72% of advisers build ESG factors into their investment proposition, with many seeing a rise in the amount of client money invested sustainably, the amount could be higher if data on sustainable investments was more readily available and comparable. 

To help financial advisers gain a better understanding of their clients' attitude towards sustainability, a Sustainable Investing Questionnaire has been added into FE CashCalc, a cashflow modelling tool, and can be used as part of the onboarding process, the company said.

The resulting ‘Sustainable Investing Profile’ assigned to clients can then be used as the basis of further conversations between financial adviser and clients when choosing investments.  

New ratings from Climetrics and ISS have also been added into FE Analytics. Funds are assigned a rating based on the providers own methodology with more 3rd party ESG ratings to be added in due course, FE said. 

ESG-related data is now also being added into FE Analytics via the European ESG Template (EET). By using some key data from the EET (such as a funds’ SFDR classification), FE Analytics can start to help financial advisers better understand the ESG credentials of a fund. This data will be added to Factsheets and the Fund Filter tool.  

Matthias Breier, head of ESG Product Group at FE fundinfo, said: “We are devoted to democratising data to give our clients a broad view of ESG data in the market to aid their decision making. 

“In addition, ahead of the SDR (Sustainability Disclosure Requirements) being finalised in 2023, we're working towards being ready to provide the necessary insights for regulatory requirements, based on our learnings from both the European SFDR (Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation) and recent SDR  Consultation Paper by the FCA.”