INSTITUTIONAL INVESTMENT SERVICES PROGRAMME
- Tools to measure customer experience and improve service quality
- Your customers' needs assessment for your product portfolio design
- With better customer intelligence, concrete ways to improve your performance
- Performance profiles of your customer’s managers in a tailored and benchmarked view
EXTENSIVE RESEARCH ON INSTITUTIONAL ASSET MANAGEMENT
The Institutional Investment Services survey is an extensive in-depth study launched in 1996, with annual implementation starting in 2000. We interview approximately 100 of the most significant Finnish institutional investors annually and examine investor allocation solutions, the use of different investment instruments, the selection of asset managers, and experiences of the results and quality of the work of different service providers.
The results of the institutional survey allow the investor community to compare their operations with the solutions of colleagues working with similar challenges. The survey provides asset managers and other service providers with detailed feedback on how to develop their operations so that they can serve their institutional clients in the best possible way.
Our interactive in-depth interviews also add value to the interviewees' own work. In the words of one investor, "Your interview is a useful annual moment that helps us review and evaluate our portfolio, as well as our asset managers."
According to several interviewees, SFR serves as an effective feedback channel between service providers and customers. Better customer experience and quality of service is our common goal. We also carry out tailored analyses for the interviewees' own use.
Every year, we reward the best performing service providers in our survey. Read more here!
BENEFITS AND USES OF AN SFR STUDY
- Developing your product portfolio
- Improving the quality of your service
- Development of customer communications
- Managing customer relationships
- Developing customer perceived responsibility
- Support for decision-making
ABOUT THE METHODOLOGY
The survey is conducted as personal in-depth interviews taking place in August and September every year. The population of the study consists of Finland's largest institutional investors, of which we have identified approximately 100 institutions as respondents. The participation rate among this group of investors is very high and for example in 2023 it was over 95%. Every year, we have discussions with service providers and give them the opportunity to influence the interviewees of the survey. Most of the respondents remain the same year after year, increasing the comparability of the survey.
The population includes a diverse range of investor groups, such as pension funds and foundations, insurance companies, cities and parishes, foundations, universities and universities of applied sciences, trade unions and personnel funds. In the 2023 survey, the total assets under management of all respondents amounted to EUR 275 billion, of which insurance companies represent approximately EUR 250 billion. Insurance companies represent less than 10 per cent of the respondents.
All survey participants answer questions related to current and future allocations, sustainable investing and demand trends, and from these answers we form a market report. In addition, we produce a competitive positioning report, for which the respondents give the service providers they use grades on a scale of 1-5 (1=worst, 5=best) on nine different criteria, such as pricing, sustainable investing, and ability to take market view. From these grades, we calculate the average and reward the providers with the highest scores in different categories. Insurance companies do not give grades to the service providers they use due to their own internal operating models. Each investor's grades carry the same weight, regardless of the assets under management or the chosen asset management model.
Every year, we reward the most successful service providers in our survey. We divide them into three different categories according to utilization rate and product range. The "Large" group includes the providers with the highest utilization rates, while the Challenger group includes providers with lower utilization rates in our study. The Specialized group, on the other hand, includes service providers that are focused on only a few asset classes. We reward both those who have done best in the survey in general and those who have received the best sustainable investment ratings.