Thought leadership

Rick Redding of the Index Industry Association (IIA) and Qontigo’s Arun Singhal discuss what role indices will play in an asset-management industry increasingly veering towards sustainability considerations in the portfolio-construction process.

Sustainability indices and analytics are crucial catalysts for investors to transition from ‘brown’ to ‘green’ portfolios. However, the shift is being hindered, among other things, by inconsistent national legislations and lack of proper ESG disclosures from companies. Regulators have a key role to play to overcome these obstacles.

As sustainable investing’s uptake continues to gather pace, index-based solutions have gained investors’ favor as a simple, low-cost and transparent way to implement sustainable strategies.

A webinar organized by Risk.net and Eurex addressed the surge in interest in ESG derivatives and explored what lies ahead for the market amid increasing regulation and continued improvements in data and index design.

Manuela Sperandeo, BlackRock’s EMEA Head of Sustainable Indexing, discusses her firm’s investment mandate tracking the iSTOXX APG World Responsible Low-Carbon SDI Index, and explains how using indices can enhance transparency, efficiency and predictability in the construction process of a climate-aware and sustainable portfolio.

We talk to Abhishek Gupta, FlexShares’ Senior Quantitative Strategist, about the company’s new ETFs covering low volatility and high dividend strategies in emerging markets. The funds, which track STOXX indices, include Northern Trust Asset Management’s proprietary quality and ESG screens, as well as climate filters, aimed at helping improve risk-adjusted returns.

The iSTOXX APG World Responsible Investment Indices were designed to ‘layer in’ various sustainability filters in order to measure the effect on risk and returns of each individual ESG criteria on a developed-markets global equities portfolio. Hamish Seegopaul and Yurong Gu explain how the new indices came about and discuss the value of the collaboration with the Netherlands’ APG and with BlackRock.

As the DAX indices complete the biggest reform in their three-decade history, we talk to Stephan Flaegel, Chief Product Officer, Indices and Benchmarks, at Qontigo, to hear what the new rules mean for the flagship DAX and how quality, simplicity and alignment with international standards were key drivers in the overhaul.

Ronald van Dijk, Deputy CIO at APG Asset Management, discusses how the recently launched iSTOXX APG World Responsible Investment Indices help pension funds and other investors incorporate different layers of sustainability ambitions on portfolios in an innovative, flexible and transparent way.

Chris Huemmer, Northern Trust Asset Management’s Senior Investment Strategist, discusses his firm’s innovative ETFs tracking multi-factor, ESG and climate strategies, and the role of an index provider in wrapping up a holistic investment approach.

BlackRock’s ‘Germany at the Sustainability Turning Point’ webinar provided a stage for a discussion around how companies and investors in Europe’s biggest market are adapting in the face of increasing ESG regulation.

As a new batch of ETPs tracking STOXX single-stock short and leveraged indices is listed on the London Stock Exchange and Euronext, we talk to Oktay Kavrak from issuer Leverage Shares to find out how the products work and how investors are using them.