Fund Spotlight

Fund research targeted to your needs

The financial sector is in a constant state of upheaval. Regulatory requirements on product selection are mounting while fiercer competition is pressing margins ever more tightly. In this context financial players are increasingly asking themselves what their own core competencies are and what services they could or should bring in from an external partner.

Clearstream Fund Centre offers distribution partners a fund research solution, Fund Spotlight, in partnership with Morningstar. Customers can benefit from Morningstar's independent investment research and fund selection experience.

Benefit from an independent research partner

  • Focus on analysis for finding the best possible investment solutions for customers;
  • Access an extensive fund database, highly sophisticated analysis, research and assessment methods, for successful fund selection;
  • Benefit from long-standing contacts with fund providers around the world.

Generate added value for investors

  • Clear and standardised Morningstar analysts’ ratings;
  • Ratings are constantly refined;
  • Clear description of what to expect from a fund;
  • Get support in decision-making process (for example, to decide whether a passive, index-tracking solution or an active fund is more appropriate, or which share class would be the best fit).

Outsourcing benefits for distribution partners

  • Redirect resources and time to core tasks;
  • Benefit from the highest standards for fund research processes;
  • Benefit from appropriate governance.

Five-step approach to your target fund list

Based on customers’ needs, Morningstar generates a list of the most eligible funds and considers whether there are any advantages from an active or passive product in a given segment. Sustainability criteria can also play a role in this selection process.

Morningstar specialists have built up a fund universe based on the quantitative and qualitative analyses of their 175 analysts worldwide. This gives customers access to a standardised fund list or a fund selection tailored to their specific needs. If possible, active and passive funds are included across asset classes, including sustainability criteria and ESG funds.

A bespoke offering

Diversified and comprehensive lists of funds can be fully customised.  Clearstream Fund Spotlight offers three different service packages:

  • Standard
  • Enhanced
  • Premium

Service packages of Fund Spotlight at a glance

Standard - Access the list of 50 funds in the most popular asset classes associated to basic reporting

The Standard offer of Fund Spotlight gives access to a list of 50 funds in the most popular asset classes. Funds are rated with qualitative ratings from Morningstar analysts and covered by a limited reporting.

Enhanced - Access the list of several hundred funds, including country and regional funds, and receive extended reporting

With the Enhanced version of Fund Spotlight, customers access an extended universe of 500 funds and benefit from qualitative and quantitative Morningstar ratings. The enhanced package covers broad reporting with Morningstar’s Quantitative Rating report and Fund Research report. The report provides, in detail, the rationale for the analysts’ rating and gives an analysis of all the pillars that Morningstar analyses when researching funds and managers (people, process, parent).

Premium - Access a tailor-made fund list and comprehensive reporting

Customers subscribing to Fund Spotlight Premium benefit from a bespoke fund list and asset classes as well as a comprehensive reporting package which completes the Enhanced offering and additionally covers:

  • A comprehensive quarterly presentation created and delivered to customer’s investment or governance committees;
  • An exception reporting with specific fund commentary;
  • A quarterly market commentary which provides an overview of what has happened across asset markets, covering performance, trends and themes;
  • A factsheet with performance attribution and asset positioning for the tailor-made fund list.

Our partner

Morningstar is an independent global research and data provider that has been supplying quantitative and qualitative analyses of investment products for over 30 years. Specialists analyse the funds and assess them with Morningstar’s well-known ratings. The Morningstar Manager Selection Team uses this analysis to create the fund lists based on and in line with customers’ preferences.

Morningstar ratings

  • The classic Star Rating is awarded on the basis of fund performance to date;
  • The Analyst Rating indicates an analyst’s assessment of whether a fund can continue to outperform its peer group or an index over an entire market cycle;
  • A Quantitative Rating is awarded to funds or ETFs that have no Analyst Rating but are in a category where such ratings are issued;
  • Morningstar’s Sustainability Rating indicates how well the companies or countries represented in a fund portfolio as equities or bonds deal with their environmental, social and governance risks and opportunities.