Trento, 20.05.2024 – A positive growth trend continues for NEAM S.A., which has celebrated 25 years of business in recent days. The company is wholly owned by Cassa Centrale Banca, the Parent Company of the Cooperative Banking Group of the same name. It was established in Luxembourg on 19 May 1999 to manage the NEF (Nord Est Fund) investment fund, which was created to offer a high-quality solution to meet the savings management needs of the customers of banks with strong local roots.
The fund is now structured as an umbrella with 18 sub-funds, including ethical, equity, bond and balanced sub-funds. The management of each sub-fund is delegated to prestigious international investment companies, selected by the NEAM S.A. team through an extensive analysis that takes into consideration elements such as ESG criteria, performance—also in terms of continuity—and the structure of portfolios managed.
The NEF has grown considerably over the last 25 years, reaching EUR 7.6 billion in assets managed and recording an increase of 10% since the beginning of the year and of 20% in the last 12 months.
A significant contributor to this growth is the CAP (Capital Accumulation Plan), which from the outset has been a strength of the NEF. The CAP is considered a highly efficient form of savings education that is adapted to the needs of customers of the BCC (cooperative credit banks) – Casse Rurali (rural banks) – Raiffeisenkassen (agricultural cooperative banks), to the extent it was also made available to minors. The NEF currently manages around 550,000 CAPs and this number is constantly increasing.
Developments that have marked the history of the NEF include the forward-thinking decision made in 2015 to offer subscribers the opportunity to make ethical investments Since then, the family of Ethical sub-funds has continued to grow and today it is possible to achieve broad portfolio diversification by choosing from a basket of seven sub-funds dedicated to sustainable and responsible finance, whose assets have exceeded EUR 3 billion. Moreover, NEAM has plans to gradually transition the sub-funds towards sustainable and responsible investment approaches, which in Europe refer to the SFDR (Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation).
In this context, NEAM provides significant support to social and charitable initiatives, including Telethon, to support research on rare genetic diseases, the University Hospital of Modena, to aid patients suffering from epidermolysis bullosa, the Luxembourg Red Cross in Ukraine, for assistance efforts, the NGO Casa Veritas, for a programme to access better and more diversified nutrition, the international network EUBREAST (European Breast Cancer Research Association of Surgical Trialists), and the social cooperative Archè, to improve social inclusion for the most vulnerable people through a sailing experience.