S&P Dow Jones Indices is proud to expand the SPIVA Scorecard report to the Latin America region. The SPIVA methodology is designed to provide an accurate and objective apples-to-apples comparison of active funds’ performance versus their appropriate style benchmark indices. The SPIVA Latin America Scorecard covers the Brazilian, Chilean, and Mexican markets. A summary of the year-end 2014 results in the three markets follows.
Brazil
Actively managed Brazilian funds underperformed their category’s benchmark in all five fund categories in 2014. In the Brazil Equity category, 50.36%of managers underperformed the S&P Brazil BMI for the year. Managers focusing on a particular size segment did not fare favorably, with 72.92% underperforming in the Brazil Large-Cap Equity category and 69.77% underperforming in the Brazil Mid/Small-Cap Equity category. In the fixed income categories, active managers overwhelmingly underperformed their benchmarks: 83.52% of managers in the Brazil Corporate Bond category and 82.95% in the Brazil Government Bond category underperformed their respective benchmarks in 2014. Similar underperformance for all five categories was seen over the three- and five-year periods.
Chile
A slight majority (53%) of active equity fund managers in Chile were able to outperform the benchmark in 2014. The short-term success of the managers is in stark contrast to their long-term returns, with less than 3% of active managers outperforming the benchmark over a five-year period.
Mexico
Mexican equity active managers were unsuccessful in outperforming the benchmark, with 73.33% of managers lagging the S&P Mexico BMI in 2014. Likewise, 60.53% and 80.56% of managers underperformed the benchmark over the three- and five-year periods, respectively.