Fitch Gives SSGA ESG Fund AAAmmf
A press release entitled, "Fitch Assigns New Rating to State Street ESG Liquid Reserves Fund," tells us, "Fitch Ratings has assigned a 'AAAmmf' rating to State Street ESG Liquid Reserves Fund.... The main drivers of the rating are: The fund's overall credit quality and diversification; low exposure to interest rate and spread risk; holdings of daily and weekly liquid assets consistent with shareholder profile and concentration; maturity profile consistent with Fitch's 'AAAmmf' rating criteria; and the capabilities and resources of State Street Global Advisors." It adds, "The fund seeks to limit interest rate and spread risk by maintaining weighted average maturities (WAM) and weighted average lives (WAL) below 60 days and 120 days, respectively, as per Fitch's AAAmmf criteria. The fund seeks to maintain sufficient levels of daily and weekly liquidity to manage investors' flows. Specifically, the fund invests at least 10% of its total assets in securities offering daily liquidity and at least 30% in securities maturing within seven days or other qualifying liquid assets." The release continues, "The fund seeks to maximize current income while considering ESG criteria, to the extent consistent with the preservation of capital and liquidity. The fund is a feeder fund that seeks to achieve its investment objective by investing substantially all of its investable assets in the State Street ESG Liquid Reserves Portfolio, which has substantially identical investment policies to the fund. The fund uses R-Factor, State Street Global Advisors' (SSGA's) proprietary ESG scoring system that draws on multiple data sources to generate a unique ESG score for issuers. In particular, the R-Factor score incorporates metrics and criteria recognized by the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SSAB) and ISS Governance (ISG) including impact on climate change and air quality, energy management, human rights, labor practices, business ethics, board independence and accountability, shareholder rights and engagement, and alignment of compensation business and strategy. Not all criteria are assigned equal weight in constructing an R-Factor score."
