FundGrade® A+ Rating™ ranks the year's very best mutual funds

TORONTO, Jan. 24, 2013 /CNW Telbec/ - Fundata Canada Inc. is pleased to announce the winners of the Fundata FundGrade A+ Rating for 2012.

The FundGrade A+ Rating is the first and only totally objective, transparent, score-based calculation using a grade-point average that ranks funds to determine the annual "best-of-the-best" ratings. As such, the FundGrade A+ Rating provides investors, advisors, and fund managers with a single, reliable, easy-to-understand fund-performance rating based on an entire calendar year.

Janny Vincent, President and CEO of Fundata Canada Inc., said, "We are excited about the release of the second annual FundGrade A+ winners list. Recipient funds have demonstrated consistent, outstanding risk-adjusted performance through the year."

"Mutual funds continue to be an important investment asset, accounting for more than a third of Canadians' financial wealth," says Ms. Vincent, "and more than 40% of families now hold mutual funds in their RRSPs. Mutual funds continue to grow in popularity," she adds, pointing out that mutual fund assets have increased by an average of 17.5% per year over the past 20 years. "At present, more than 831 mutual funds, with just under $378.1 billion in assets, invest in the Canadian economy."

"We feel that identifying and honouring Canada's top-notch investment funds with the FundGrade A+ Rating signifies a very unique accomplishment by the fund companies and will allow investors and advisors to easily identify the best of the best over the past year," she said.

The FundGrade A+ Rating builds on and enhances the popular Fundata FundGrade fund rating system. The FundGrade A+ Rating is awarded annually to funds that have achieved consistently high FundGrade scores through an entire calendar year.

Achieving a FundGrade A+ Rating denotes inclusion in an exclusive group, because less than 2% of the investment fund products available in Canada have received a FundGrade A+ rating.

For more information and a complete list of the funds receiving the Fundata FundGrade A+ Rating for the calendar year 2012, please visit http://fundata.com/ProductsServices/FundgradeAPlusList.aspx.

About FundGrade

Fundata's FundGrade is an independent and objective investment-fund rating system that recognizes funds with superior risk-adjusted returns. FundGrade provides a quick and easy approach for identifying funds with a track record of first-rate performance, helping investors identify exceptionally performing funds. From an "A" (superior past performance) to an "E" grade (poor past performance), our rating system assigns a grade to over 7,000 investment funds.

About FundGrade A+ Rating

FundGrade A+ Grade identifies funds that have been consistent FundGrade A Grade performers over the past year. It's the only objective rating system available in the market that's based solely on risk-adjusted performance history and that takes into account the consistency with which a fund is ranked at the top of its CIFSC class. In short, the FundGrade A+ Rating identifies funds with not only the best risk-adjusted returns but also those demonstrating the highest level of consistency.

Mutual Funds and Segregated Funds have been graded separately. Pooled Funds and Hedge Funds are not included in the calculations.

For more information on the Fundata FundGrade and FundGrade A+ rating system or to obtain a detailed explanation on how FundGrade and FundGrade A+ are calculated, please visit www.fundata.com.

About Fundata Canada Inc.

Fundata Canada Inc. has been providing data aggregation and dissemination services to the Canadian media and financial marketplace since 1987. Fundata is a major player in the distribution of fund and stock information in Canada. Our database contains over 23,000 investment products, covering 850 data points. Fundata provides customized data feeds, top-shelf analytics, cutting-edge software tools, and seamless hosted web solutions for fund companies, back office systems, investment planners, banks, trust companies, resellers and redistributors, and online, print, and broadcast media channels.

For more information, visit www.fundata.com.

SOURCE: Fundata Canada Inc.