Thought leadership

At the recent Qontigo Investment Intelligence Summit, WTW’s climate experts discussed how investors can better grasp a company’s climate-transition risk by looking forward to the future impact on its cash flows, rather than backwards at its carbon footprint.

The market volatility and macroeconomic disruptions of 2022 have raised a challenge to the thematic investing boom, but also offer a chance to reappraise the benefits of the investment approach.

ESG and climate metrics can be used as signals to generate alpha either on a stand-alone basis or to strengthen traditional style factors, BlackRock’s Andrew Ang explained during the Qontigo Investment Intelligence Summit.

The Qontigo Investment Intelligence Summit held on May 5 was the stage for a discussion around index-based thematic investing. Two industry experts — from BlackRock and Qontigo — explained why assets are flowing into thematics and why the strategies can best target the upside of a world undergoing structural change.

A new Qontigo whitepaper analyzes the risk characteristics and factor exposures of the STOXX Willis Towers Watson Climate Transition Indices (CTIs). The study helps investors understand the implications of a portfolio that is aligned with the goals of the Paris Agreement and that manages the risks and opportunities from moving to a low-carbon economy.

The Index Industry Association (IIA) provides education and advocacy on behalf of independent index providers worldwide, CEO Rick Redding explains to Qontigo’s blog. With the transformation of the role and shape of indices in full swing, he sees huge possibilities for the industry and for investors ahead – as well as key challenges.

As the EURO iSTOXX Ocean Care 40 is named Index of the Year by SRP, we dive deeper into the drivers behind the launch of the thematic index. We talk to Céline Jaquelin, responsible for French Institutional Clients at SILEX, Qontigo’s partner in the design of the Ocean Care indices.

On February 24, Qontigo and Responsible Investor hosted a webinar to discuss the state of play in Europe’s ESG fund labeling landscape. A panel of experts analyzed the aims of the labels, their intersection with broader European regulation, and what it all means for the ultimate goal of achieving a more sustainable economy.

Arun Singhal, joined The Podfolio podcast to discuss index investing, and the emergence of smart beta strategies that blur the line between active and passive approaches.

As the outlook for Technology stocks appears uncertain, we look at the risk-management benefits for Korean investors of adding a little DAX exposure to a KOSPI portfolio.

For the past 20 years, a multi-factor strategy as targeted by the STOXX Europe 600 Industry Neutral Ax Multi-Factor Index has fared extremely well, and much of that consistent performance can be traced to the benefit of diversifying across different sources of return premia.

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.