At a Glance: FactSet Mutual Fund Reference Standard DataFeed

Contents

The Basics 

The Applications

The Coverage 

The Differentiators

Sample Queries 

The Basics

FactSet’s mutual fund reference data offers comprehensive coverage of mutual fund ownership information, capturing details on fund classification, share classes, and associated benchmarks. The data is meticulously collected from publicly available sources such as regulatory filings, fund websites, and other authoritative publications. FactSet provides descriptive and reference data, including fund categorizations, which allow users to analyze investment trends, track fund performance, and understand the distribution of assets across different sectors and regions. This robust dataset enables users to gain insights into the mutual fund landscape, facilitating informed decision-making and strategic planning. 

The Applications

The Coverage

The FactSet Mutual Fund Reference DataFeed collects global data on mutual funds and their share classes, providing comprehensive insights into fund attributes. It covers 40k+ mutual funds and 190k+ share classes, with detailed historical data updated daily.

Key Coverage Areas:  

1. Global Fund Data: Covers 40k+ mutual funds and 190k+ share classes worldwide, updated daily for accurate and timely information. 
2. Asset Class Information: Detailed insights into the fund's classification perspective, such as equity, fixed income, commodities, and other asset classes. 
3. Category and Focus: Comprehensive data on subcategories within asset classes, including large cap, micro cap, hedge fund strategies, sector focus, and specific investment themes. 
4. Niche Classifications: Specialized third-tier subcategories offering detailed insights into specific fund characteristics across various sectors and markets. Examples include 'Strategy_Alpha seeking_Broker Recommendations,' 'Industrial Metals_Lead_Optimized,'  'Agriculture_Soybeans_Laddered’ and many more. These niche classifications provide targeted information to help identify and understand the unique attributes of each fund. 
5. Benchmark Information: Metadata on performance benchmarks associated with funds and share classes, aiding in comparative analysis. 
6. Global Availability: Lists countries where each share class is available for sale, particularly relevant for European funds. 
7. Segment Data: A comprehensive classification system organizing funds into detailed segments based on FactSet’s advanced fund classification methodology. This system includes a wide range of categories such as “Equity: Global Ex-North America - Total Market,” “Fixed Income: France Sovereign Investment Grade Broad Maturities,” and “Commodities: Agriculture Corn” among many more. These precise classifications offer invaluable insights into diverse fund attributes, enabling efficient navigation and understanding of complex investment landscapes. 
8. Mapping Tables: Essential tools for translating classification codes found in primary data tables. These tables ensure seamless data integration, comprehensive analysis, and enhanced understanding of fund attributes. 

Mutual Funds Coverage

FactSet's mf_fund_coverage is the cornerstone of mutual fund data, meticulously compiled from a vast array of global regulatory filings, fund prospectuses, and financial statements. Covering 40k+ mutual funds, this dataset offers comprehensive attributes and classifications, crucial for in-depth financial analysis. 

Key Features and Benefits: 

• Extensive Coverage: Spanning a wide range of mutual funds from various geographies, this dataset provides detailed information on asset classes, categories, benchmark indices, and geographic focus. 

• Detailed Metadata: Includes critical fund attributes and structural details such as fund management, development level, legal structure, and compliance information, supporting a solid data foundation for financial professionals. 

• Daily Updates: Ensures the highest level of data accuracy and timeliness, with daily updates that reflect the most current market information. 

• Insightful Analysis: Facilitates a deep understanding of mutual fund dynamics, enabling strategic investment decisions and enhancing research capabilities for clients. 

• Regulatory Compliance: Information on legal regulators, UCITS compliance, ESG flags, and PRIIPs indicators ensure funds meet local and international regulations. 

Use Cases: 

1. Investment Decision-Making: Provides investors and financial advisors with the data necessary to make informed investment choices. 
2. Research and Analysis: Equips researchers with reliable and detailed information for market analysis and trend identification. 
3. Performance Tracking: Enables the tracking of fund performance and comparison with benchmarks, assisting in portfolio management. 
4. Regulatory Reporting: Supports compliance teams in ensuring that investment products meet regulatory requirements. 

The mf_fund_coverage is an indispensable tool for financial professionals, offering an unparalleled depth of information that enhances investment strategies and market insights. 

Mutual Fund Share Class Coverage

FactSet’s mf_share_class_cov is an essential resource that complements the mf_fund_coverage table by providing detailed metadata on the share classes associated with each mutual fund. Share classes represent the various tradable securities linked to a fund, and each fund can have multiple share classes to cater to different investor needs. 

Key Features and Benefits: 

• Comprehensive Coverage: Captures detailed information on numerous share classes across a wide range of mutual funds, ensuring diverse and extensive data availability. 

• Detailed Attributes: Includes critical attributes such as share class names, types, currencies, launch dates, dividend treatments, and legal structures. This granularity helps to understand the specific characteristics and regulatory compliance of each share class. 

• Trade Information: Provides essential trade-related details like marketplace, listing currency, and fund transaction cutoff times, facilitating informed trading decisions. 

• Hedging Information: Includes data on whether the share class is currency-hedged, and the specifics of hedged currencies, which is vital for investors looking to manage currency risk. 

• Management and Compliance: Contains information on issuers, management entities, and compliance indicators like UCITS SRRI and PRIIPs SRI, aiding in regulatory adherence and risk assessment. 

Use Cases: 

1. Investor Selection: Allows investors to choose the most suitable share class based on factors such as currency denomination, dividend treatment, and management style. 
2. Regulatory Reporting: Supports compliance teams by providing necessary regulatory details to ensure adherence to local and international investment regulations. 
3. Portfolio Diversification: Assists portfolio managers in diversifying holdings by selecting share classes that align with their investment strategies and risk profiles. 

The mf_share_class_cov, updated regularly, ensures accurate, up-to-date information, making it an indispensable tool for financial professionals seeking to optimize their investment strategies and compliance workflows. 

Mutual Fund Index Coverage

FactSet’s mf_index_coverage provides essential metadata on the benchmark indices associated with mutual funds, serving as a critical resource for accurate performance analysis and market assessment. 

Key Features and Benefits: 

• Comprehensive Benchmark Data: Captures extensive details on benchmark indices, including index identifiers, providers, return levels (net or gross), and currencies, ensuring a holistic understanding of each index. 

• Dual Benchmark Support: Supports two types of benchmarks for each mutual fund/share class: 

• Performance Benchmark Index: Cross-referenced in the share class table to provide standard performance measurements. 

• Segment Benchmark: Found in the mf_segment_map table to reflect segment-specific benchmarks for fund classification. 

• Regulatory Compliance: Includes compliance-related information like distribution treatments, aiding in adherence to regulatory guidelines. 

• Currency and Hedging: Provides information on the currency of each index and details related to hedging, which is crucial for managing currency risks in investment portfolios. 

Use Cases: 

1. Performance Benchmarking: Enables investors and analysts to benchmark mutual fund performance against recognized indices, ensuring precise and comparable performance evaluations. 
2. Investment Strategy Development: Assists portfolio managers in selecting appropriate benchmarks that align with their investment strategies and performance targets. 
3. Market Assessment: Supports detailed market assessments by allowing comparisons across various benchmarks, providing insights into fund performance relative to market standards. 
4. Regulatory Adherence: Helps compliance teams ensure mutual funds meet benchmark and regulatory standards, enhancing the credibility and transparency of investment products. 

FactSet’s mf_index_coverage ensures high-quality, up-to-date benchmark information, enhancing the accuracy and depth of financial analysis and decision-making processes. 

Mutual Fund Country for Sale Coverage

The mf_country_for_sale table offers vital metadata about the geographical availability of mutual fund share classes. This dataset is essential for understanding where specific mutual fund share classes are authorized for sale, enabling effective compliance and strategic planning for market operations. 

Key Features and Benefits: 

• Geographical Distribution: Lists all countries where each mutual fund share class is available for sale, with particular relevance to European funds and share classes. Each share class may be authorized in several countries, indicating a broad market reach. 

• Authorization Dates: Includes the dates from which share classes have been authorized for sale in specific countries, ensuring accurate tracking of market entry timelines and compliance periods. 

• Regulatory Compliance: Acts as a reliable source to verify that mutual funds meet the regulatory requirements in various countries, safeguarding against unauthorized sales and ensuring adherence to local laws. 

• Market Strategy Planning: Assists in planning market entry and expansion strategies by leveraging the geographical availability data of fund share classes. 

• Investor Guidance: Supports investors in identifying suitable investment opportunities that comply with regulations in their respective countries, ensuring compliant investment decisions. 

Use Cases: 

1. Regulatory Compliance: Ensures mutual fund share classes are authorized for sale in specific countries, aiding in the adherence to local regulatory frameworks. 
2. Market Expansion: Facilitates strategic planning for market expansion by identifying geographical opportunities and understanding existing market presence. 
3. Targeted Marketing: Enables the tailoring of marketing campaigns and communication strategies based on the geographical availability and regulatory compliance of mutual fund share classes. 
4. Investor Assistance: Helps investors select mutual fund share classes authorized for sale in their countries, ensuring compliance with local regulations. 

The mf_country_for_sale table is a crucial resource, providing up-to-date and accurate information on the geographical distribution and regulatory compliance of mutual fund share classes. This enables efficient market analysis, strategic planning, and investment decision-making. 

Mutual Fund Mappings Coverage

The additional mapping tables—mf_asset_class_map, mf_category_map, mf_focus_map, mf_niche_map, and mf_segment_map—serve as reference tables to translate classification codes found in the mf_fund_coverage table. 

Key Information: 

• Purpose: These tables provide descriptive details corresponding to the classification codes, ensuring clear and accurate interpretation of fund data. 

• Usage Example: If the mf_fund_coverage table lists a segment code (e.g., Segment #123), the mf_segment_map table will provide the actual name and details of Segment #123. 

• Importance: These mappings are crucial for analyzing and understanding fund classifications across various dimensions such as asset class, category, focus, niche, and segment. 

These mapping tables are vital for decoding and understanding the classification codes, facilitating efficient data interpretation and analysis. 

The Differentiators

Comprehensive Coverage: FactSet’s mutual fund reference data covers 40k+ mutual funds and 190k+ share classes globally, updated daily to ensure the most accurate and timely information. 

Detailed Attributes: Captures extensive details on share classes, including names, types, currencies, launch dates, dividend treatments, and legal structures. This granularity aids in understanding the specific characteristics and regulatory compliance of each share class. 

Benchmark Data: Provides comprehensive metadata on benchmark indices, including index identifiers, providers, return levels (net or gross), and currencies. This ensures a holistic understanding of performance benchmarking and market assessment. 

Dual Benchmark Support: Supports two types of benchmarks for each mutual fund/share class—Performance Benchmark Index and Segment Benchmark—allowing standard performance measurements and segment-specific benchmarks. 

Regulatory Compliance: Includes compliance-related information such as distribution treatments, UCITS SRRI, and PRIIPs SRI, aiding in adherence to regulatory guidelines and risk assessment. 

Currency and Hedging Information: Offers detailed data on the currency of each index and specifics of hedged currencies, which is vital for managing currency risks in investment portfolios. 

Global Availability: Lists countries where each share class is available for sale, particularly relevant for European funds, ensuring investors can make informed decisions based on geographic availability. 

Trade Information: Provides essential trade-related details like marketplace, listing currency, and fund transaction cutoff times, facilitating informed trading decisions. 

Advanced Classification System: Utilizes FactSet’s advanced fund classification methodology to organize funds into detailed segments, offering invaluable insights into diverse fund attributes and enabling efficient navigation of complex investment landscapes. 

Hybrid Collection Model: Ensures the most timely and accurate information by incorporating monthly reporting from fund websites in addition to regulatory filings, particularly for North American funds. 

Ownership Insights: FactSet’s entity-centric symbology model integrates Mutual Funds data with other content sets such as Fundamentals, Estimates, Ownership, and DMS Entity Reference content, providing a comprehensive view of ownership profiles. This integration allows users to connect mutual funds classification with ownership positions and other financial data enhancing the depth and breadth of the analysis. 

These differentiators make FactSet’s mutual fund reference data an indispensable tool for financial professionals seeking to optimize their investment strategies, ensure regulatory compliance, and gain deep insights into the mutual fund landscape. 

Sample Queries

SQL Query for a sample of fund data: 

select asset_class_description, category_desc, focus_desc, niche_desc, segment_code_desc, fc.*  

from mf_v1.mf_fund_coverage fc  

join mf_v1.mf_asset_class_map acm  

on fc.asset_class = acm.asset_class_code 

join mf_v1.mf_category_map cm  

on fc.category = cm.category_code 

join mf_v1.mf_focus_map fm  

on fc.focus = fm.focus_code 

join mf_v1.mf_niche_map nm  

on fc.niche = nm.niche_code 

join mf_v1.mf_segment_map sm  

on fc.segment = sm.segment_code 

where issuer_factset_entity_id = '002HJD-E'  --Black Rock  

order by start_date, fund_name  

SQL Query for share classes for a fund: 

select fc.factset_fund_Id, scc.*, ic.*  

from mf_v1.mf_fund_coverage fc  

join mf_v1.mf_share_class_cov scc  

on scc.fund_id = fc.fund_id 

join mf_v1.mf_index_coverage ic  

on ic.index_id = scc.index_id 

where fc.issuer_factset_entity_id = '002HJD-E'  --Black Rock  

and factset_fund_id =  '04BWJL-E'  

order by fund_share_class_name  

SQL Query for country for sale for a fund: 

select *  

from mf_v1.mf_country_for_sale cfs  

join mf_v1.mf_share_class_cov scc  

on scc.share_class_id = cfs.share_class 

where share_class = 148183

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Appendix A: Code