Asisa updates fund grades

OLD: PREVIOUS VERSION IN FORCE SINCE 2013

The Association for Savings and Investments South Africa (Asisa) updated its fund classification standard from 1 October, which will help investors compare the performance and risk profiles of the country's current 1 852 collective investment schemes (CIS).

Asisa is the overarching body representing the investment industry in SA, including asset managers, multi-managers and life insurers.

Sunette Mulder, senior policy advisor at Asisa, said the review was necessary after the SA Reserve Bank (Sarb) increased the offshore investment limits to 45% in 2022. The previous version of the standard had been in force since 2013.

Asisa revised the classification system so that investors can do a meaningful comparison of the performance and risks when investing in a particular type of CIS portfolio, Mulder said. The standard provides for a three-tier classification based on the investable universe:

The first tier classifies portfolios based on their top-level geographical exposure;

The second tier classifies funds according to their underlying asset classes (such as equities, multi-asset, interest-bearing, and real estate); and