National Bank Investments Funds Garner Top FundGrade A+ Awards
Event summary
- National Bank Investments (NBI) received five FundGrade A+® Awards for 2025, recognizing consistent high performance.
- The awarded funds include NBI Floating Rate Income Fund, NBI Innovators Fund, NBI U.S. Equity Private Portfolio, NBI Canadian Equity Index Fund, and NBI Sustainable Canadian Short Term Bond ETF (NSSB).
- NBI manages over $109 billion in assets under management as of December 31, 2025.
- FundGrade A+® Awards are based on risk-adjusted performance metrics like Sharpe Ratio, Sortino Ratio, and Information Ratio, using a GPA-style calculation.
The big picture
The FundGrade A+® Awards highlight NBI’s strategy of collaborating with external portfolio managers to deliver high-performance investment solutions. This approach, while potentially beneficial, introduces dependencies and requires careful oversight to ensure alignment with NBI’s overall investment philosophy. The awards also underscore the continued demand for actively managed funds and ETFs in the Canadian market, despite the rise of passive investment strategies.
What we're watching
- Performance Sustainability
- Whether NBI can maintain this level of performance across its funds, particularly given the reliance on third-party portfolio managers, will be a key indicator of long-term success.
- Fundata Methodology
- The FundGrade methodology's weighting of risk-adjusted performance metrics may not fully reflect investor preferences, potentially creating a disconnect between awards and actual investor behavior.
- Competitive Landscape
- How competitors respond to NBI’s success and adjust their strategies to capture market share in the Canadian investment fund space warrants observation.
Related topics