March 4th, 2022
The third edition of the Reply Investment Challenge is underway – the second of these challenges on the theme of sustainability. Aimed at students and young professionals, in 2021 the international online competition had 14,600 members from 91 countries around the world and a total volume of 76,746 trading operations were carried out.
This year, the theme of sustainability will play an even more central role. The objective of the Challenge, set to take place from Monday, March 28th to Friday, April 8th of this year, will be to invest in a sustainable way. Participants will be asked to present sustainable but profitable investment strategies, making choices influenced by the ESG ratings of the companies they will invest in.
In addition to expanding their knowledge of the ESG rating system, the competition will enable participants to broaden their general finance and investment skills, thanks to the exclusive e-learning content that will be made available on the Challenge platform the month prior to the competition.
Participants in this year’s Challenge will have a virtual $1,000,000 capital at their disposal to invest in real-time within the US market. On March 28th, the sum will be credited to the participants’ virtual wallets and the challenge will start. Participants will be ranked and evaluated based on their sustainable investment choices and only the top three – those who have maximised their result in terms of profit and sustainability – will win the challenge.
To demonstrate the commitment to sustainability, the Reply Sustainable Investment Challenge 2022 will have a zero negative impact on the environment and will be completely green. In collaboration with LifeGate, a referent on themes related to sustainability, the overall environmental impact generated by organising and conducting the event has been calculated. The amount of CO2 produced will thus be offset through the creation and protection of forests in Madagascar.
This year, the Reply Sustainable Investment Challenge will once again have Banca Generali as its partner. The first Italian bank to embark on the path of offering ESG investment solutions for families, Banca Generali will accompany students through the different stages of the competition, concretely measuring the results not only financially, but also in terms of their environment and social implications.
The 2022 edition of the Challenge will also count with to the participation of CFA Society Italy, MainStreet Partners and the MIP Politecnico di Milano Graduate School of Business. CFA Society Italy which, since its foundation, has promoted the highest standards of ethics, education and excellence within the entire financial community, is constantly focused on the latest ESG issues that are revolutionising the sector.
MainStreet Partners, a London-based company specialising in sustainable investments and portfolio analysis, will provide ESG ratings that will be used in the competition. Moreover, with its participation in the Reply Sustainable Investment Challenge, the MIP Politecnico di Milano Graduate School of Business confirms its commitment to educating and training financial operators who are attentive to risk and to the sustainability of their investments.
The Reply Sustainable Investment Challenge is part of the Reply Challenges Programme which, together with the Reply Code For Kids programme and Reply’s 2nd level Master’s Degree in AI & Cloud offered at the Polytechnic University of Turin, are just some of the examples of the Group’s continued commitment to the development of innovative training models, capable of engaging the new generations of high performers. Today, Reply’s Challenges is made up of a community of over 140,000 players.
Registrations to the Reply Sustainable Investment Challenge will be open until March 25. Full information is available on: challenges.reply.com.
Reply
Reply [MTA, STAR: REY, ISIN: IT0005282865] specialises in the design and implementation of solutions based on new communication channels and digital media. As a network of highly specialised companies, Reply defines and develops business models enabled by the new models of AI, big data, cloud computing, digital media and the internet of things. Reply delivers consulting, system integration and digital services to organisations across the telecom and media; industry and services; banking and insurance; and public sectors. www.reply.com
Banca Generali
Banca Generali è una banca private leader in Italia nella pianificazione finanziaria e nella tutela patrimoniale dei clienti, forte di una rete di Banca Generali is a leading private bank in Italy in financial planning and customer asset protection, backed by a strong network of consultants and private bankers who rank at the very top of the sector in terms of their skills and professionalism. The Company’s strategy is based on four key pillars: the qualified advisory services of professionals specialised in protecting the wealth of families and in supporting the planning of their future; a cutting-edge product portfolio with solutions tailored to the clients’ personal needs, innovative wealth management services for financial assets and other types of activity, and innovative tools which, through the adoption of new technologies, enhance the relationship of trust between consultant and client. The Bank’s mission highlights the role of trusted People alongside the Customer over time, to build and take care of their life projects. Listed on the Milan Stock Exchange since November 2006, it manages over €85.7 billion of assets from Assicurazioni Generali on behalf of customers (data as of December 31, 2021). With a strong presence throughout the country, it operates 45 branches and 137 offices available to over 2,150 financial consultants, together with an advanced digital contact service for its operations. Added to this is its digital banking platform, www.bancageneraliprivate.it, which enables customers to independently access banking services.
MainStreet Partners
We are the trusted ESG partner of many investors for one simple reason: we provide a single platform for their portfolio-level sustainability needs. Our clients are among the most sophisticated wealth managers, investment banks, insurance companies and institutional investors in the financial sector. MainStreet Partners is headquartered in London, regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and consists of two main divisions:
1. ESG Advisory - We have been collaborating with our partners for over 10 years to create multi-asset and multi-manager ESG portfolios containing mutual funds, stocks and bonds. We develop solutions for thematic products or products aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs);
2. Portfolio Analytics – We provide a holistic approach to ESG data analysis that includes: transparent and detailed ESG ratings on a wide universe of funds or the evaluation of clients’ portfolios to improve their sustainability profile and align them with the latest “green” regulations.
Our proprietary and database models are available on a pragmatic and intuitive ESG platform. Our clients can create sustainable portfolios and/or analyse their portfolios thanks to:
• ESG ratings at the issuer level (shares, credit, government bonds, green and social bonds);
• ESG ratings for funds with the addition of extra-financial results and alignment of the SDGs;
• exclusion lists and analysis of activities and behaviours.
MIP Politecnico di Milano Graduate School of Business
MIP is the Graduate School of Business of the Politecnico di Milano which, for more than 40 years, has been providing management training programmes for graduates, professionals, companies and institutions. In 2014, the School launched the first Executive MBA in digital learning in Italy and today, where digital training is an integral part of the entire training offer. The School operates paying particular attention to issues related to sustainability as the only European Business School among B Corp certified companies, an important recognition given to companies characterised by their commitment to sustainable development and to building a more inclusive society. MIP constantly collaborates with nationally and internationally renowned companies, building partnerships that make it possible to design training courses aimed at providing the best tools to face the challenges of contemporary markets. The training offer consists of more than 40 Master’s programmes each year, including MBAs and Executive MBAs, a catalogue of over 200 Open Programmes dedicated to executive profiles and various training courses tailored to the business world. www.som.polimi.it/
CFA Society Italy
CFA Society Italy is the reference association in Italy for professionals who have achieved the qualification of Chartered Financial Analyst® (CFA), the most important certification in the world of finance. Founded in 1999 as an affiliate of the CFA Institute, the Association is the point of reference in Italy for CFA Charterholders. CFA Society Italy promotes professional ethics and the value of the training and certification path in the country and provides a series of services for professionals and for those who are following the demanding exam process. Like other affiliated associations in the world, the activities carried out by CFA Society Italy are largely based on the voluntary commitment of its members. CFA Society Italy has about 600 members.