ESG & Sustainability

There is growing interest in the social pillar of ESG, especially on gender balance – a criterion often overlooked by responsible investors. On the occasion of International Women’s Day, we talked to Equileap’s Diana van Maasdijk about how gender equality is being integrated into portfolios, and why progress on this front is so slow.

The iSTOXX MUTB Japan Low Carbon Risk 30 Index tracks those Japanese companies with the best profile in terms of carbon emissions and carbon risk management, and additionally screens for quality characteristics including high profitability. The index, which expands STOXX’s collaboration with Japan’s Mitsubishi UFJ Trust and Banking Corporation (MUTB), will underlie an ETN to be listed by Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities Co., Ltd. (MUMSS) in Tokyo.

Qontigo has licensed the iSTOXX MUTB Japan Low Carbon Risk 30 Index to Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities Co., Ltd. (MUMSS).

Stocks fell in February as the military conflict in Ukraine and sanctions imposed on Russia prompted investors to sell shares in all industries except basic-resources and energy companies.

The iSTOXX® USA Ocean Care 40 Index follows on the success of the EURO iSTOXX® Ocean Care 40 Index and tracks companies whose operations and programs are helping stem the degradation of the world’s water bodies, marine ecosystems and the environment.

Stocks tumbled last month, posting their weakest showing since March 2020 and the worst January since 2016, as investors assessed the potential impact of higher US interest rates.

It appears onerous and sometimes confusing, but the European Union’s Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR) aims to enhance and protect participation in sustainable investments — a cause well worth the trouble.

Aligning portfolios with the UN Sustainable Development Goals is a fast-growing segment of responsible investing (RI), one with a different profile and outcome to ESG or climate considerations. A recent webinar explored how investors can employ the SDGs for portfolio management, index construction, reporting and more, using the Sustainable Development Investments Asset Owner Platform (SDI AOP).

We talk to Paul Lacroix, Ossiam’s Head of Structuring, about the switch of index underlying the Ossiam STOXX® Europe 600 Equal Weight NR ETF, and why an equal-weighted ESG strategy can boost both the ESG profile and price returns of a portfolio.

Fund issuers seeking to design sustainable-investment products to be distributed across European markets face an uphill struggle because of widely diverging national and regional frameworks. A new Qontigo whitepaper highlights the intricacy of Europe’s ESG labeling landscape and provides some recommendations that may help overcome its pitfalls.

The list of sustainable investment (SI) frameworks guiding portfolio design is long and keeps growing. Rarely a day goes by without intense discussion of some or all of them, and their often-conflicting implications for fund design. The authors of this paper aim to contribute towards this intensifying debate by examining in detail (as of October 2021) the criteria used in the 12 most important European pieces of legislation, country-specific fund labels and other standards guiding SI product design.

Stocks rose in December and wrapped their third consecutive year of double-digit gains, as fears of economic disruption stemming from the Omicron coronavirus variant abated.