ESG & Sustainability

Qontigo has licensed the global STOXX ESG Länder PAB Index family to four German federal states. PAB (Paris-aligned Benchmark) stands for the most ambitious EU regulation regarding fossil exclusion criteria and greenhouse gas decarbonization for index providers.

Two panels at the SRP Europe Conference 2023 discussed the role of index design in building structured products for a changing market landscape. Topics covered include rising interest rates and volatility, and growing demand for sustainability and thematic investment strategies.

The modular STOXX World indices allow investors to flexibly build portfolios covering a broad and liquid universe of stocks, slicing and dicing the world’s equity markets along regions, countries, market capitalization and sectors.

The exchange during a recent Savvy Investor webinar centered around ways to measure companies’ contribution towards achieving the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and use those metrics in investment processes.

Changes were announced as part of the March regular review of the DAX 50 ESG, DAX 50 ESG+, DAX ESG Target, DAX ESG Screened and DAX indices.

US and Asian stocks fell in February, as better-than-expected economic reports in the US signaled the Federal Reserve has room to continue raising interest rates. European shares climbed when measured in euros.

Stocks jumped in January as expectations built up that inflation worldwide may have peaked and that any recession in key developed economies may be mild.

The Sustainable Development Investments Asset Owner Platform (SDI AOP) helps investors assess companies’ contributions to sustainability themes using the UN Sustainable Development Goals. The asset owner-led effort provides a robust SDG-alignment framework and data, and is already used worldwide by investors for implementation and tracking of sustainability strategies, and engagement with multiple stakeholders.

At an IPE webinar last month, experts from WTW and Qontigo explained how the STOXX Willis Towers Watson Climate Transition Indices (CTIs) can help investors manage climate transition risk on a forward-looking basis. The audience also heard how this can be achieved without increasing a portfolio’s overall risk.

Stocks declined in December, wrapping the STOXX® Global 1800 index’s worst year since 2008, as investor concerns lingered about the impact of inflation and higher interest rates on economic and earnings growth.

SFDR Level 2 standards come into effect in 2023. Antonio Celeste and Saumya Mehrotra from Qontigo’s Sustainability Product Management team look into the concept of ‘Sustainable Investment’ and discuss how to measure and approach such investments.