All-new annual Fundgrade® A+ Rating(TM) ranks the best of the best

TORONTO, Jan. 31, 2012 /CNW Telbec/ - The birth of a new investment fund rating system. Fundata Canada Inc. is pleased to announce the release of the Fundata FundGrade A+ Rating and the inaugural recipients of the highly coveted grade.

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 FundGrade A+ Grade, as it's the first grading system that's based solely on risk-adjusted performance history and takes into account the consistency with which a fund outperforms its peers.

"We feel that identifying and honouring Canada's top-notch investment funds with an A+ rating will signify 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 added.

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 ultra-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 inaugural Fundata FundGrade A+ Rating for the calendar year 2011, please visit http://www.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+ is 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 19,000 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.

Kyle Brown
Manager, Marketing & Client Relations
416 455-5534, ext. 260
[email protected]