July 10, 2025
Today launches the first edition of ESG.IAMA Private (ESG Identity Asset Manager Assessment), developed by ET.Group.
This is the first global standard for assessing the ESG Identity of Private Markets-focused Asset Managers, available to the system (Asset Owners, Pension Funds, Banking Networks, Foundations, and Corporations) to assess the sustainability of this particular class of Asset Managers.
RETROSCENE
In 2022, ET.Group developed the ESG.IAMA (ESG Identity Asset Manager Assessment) science project, the first international quantitative sustainability/ESG Identity assessment solution for “traditional” Asset Managers (with a focus on open/liquid funds).
The ESG identity of the financial operator is the set of distinctive elements of an entity, starting with its governance and ending with the ESG consistency and coherence of its offering to the market, passing through the ways in which the entity thinks (its ESG corporate culture) and engages on the sustainable front (its ESG purpose).
Following the success achieved, both in terms of participating Asset Managers (64 AMs in 2024, for a total AUM of more than 36 trillion euros), and Asset Owner users of the tool for their own tenders, mandate renewals, and fund selection activities (Pension Funds, Banking Networks, and overall Fund Selectors, for a total AUM of about 81 billion euros), as well as companies for investor relations activities, in 2024 ET.Group brought together high-profile representatives from academia, finance, and industry and promoted the establishment of the ESG.IAMA Scientific Committee. This body serves as an authoritative guarantor of ESG.IAMA’s principles of independence and consistency, validating the results and performing advisory functions for the further development of the methodology and the overall project.
Now, to address the interest expressed by the market, and with the consent of the Scientific Committee itself, ET.Group has developed ESG.IAMA Private, the spin-off specifically for Asset Managers more focused on Private Markets.
METHODOLOGY
The questionnaire, developed in five macro-sections and 19 sub-sections, is 70 questions, 55% fewer than the 155 in “traditional” ESG.IAMA, thanks to a great deal of rationalization and optimization work completed by ET.Group’s Research Office and members of ESG.IAMA’s Scientific Committee. Also, for this first edition, it was deemed appropriate not to include an Extraordinary Area, focusing on the most frontier topics, as it was not necessary for a pilot project.
REFERENCE SAMPLE
For this first pilot edition, the scope will cover a selected and restricted panel of asset managers. Therefore, participation in the assessment was proposed to a specific sample of AMs, totaling about 50 entities, consisting of:
– Aifi’s Associates with “Impact Investing” investment focus
– Aifi’s Associates with “Sustainability” sector preference
– Asset Managers requested by Asset Owners users of ESG.IAMA Private.
NEXT STEPS
The deadline for completing the questionnaire is mid-September. Carrying out the assessment by that date makes it possible to take part in the ESG Identity Awards, which are the first awards on the ESG Identity of Asset Managers. Also this year, the Awards (already held on ESG.IAMA results last years) will be held at the Italian Stock Exchange, within the first day, by invitation only, of the salone.SRI 2025.
