Blog posts

Designed to facilitate equity financing, Eurex is introducing new equity total return futures (ETRFs) that replicate popular OTC equity swaps and incorporate the benefits of an exchange-listed product. Stuart Heath from Eurex explains what advantages ETRFs bring to banks and investors, and describes the role of indices in creating the new contracts.

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.

The exchange-traded fund started trading on the Korean Stock Exchange on December 22 and provides domestic investors direct exposure to Europe’s biggest economy and a means of geographic and industry diversification.

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 STOXX® Global 1800 index jumped 4.3% last month, for a 21.1% advance in 2021, as the Omicron coronavirus variant was reported to lead to significantly lower levels of hospitalizations than previous types. Despite lockdowns, ongoing travel restrictions and supply-chain bottlenecks, the STOXX Global 1800 index finished last year 37% above its pre-pandemic peak in February 2020.

Futures on the two European blue-chip indices are now listed on B3, the Brazilian stock exchange, giving local investors direct access to the European market without leaving their home market framework.

The idDAX 50 ESG NR Decrement 4.0% can be used to underlie structured products offering exposure to sustainability leaders in the German equity market. The decrement mechanism allows issuers to improve the coupon or capital-protection terms offered to clients.

The ETPs are issued by Leverage Shares and add to a list of more than 100 existing products. They include underlyings such as Taiwan Semiconductor and Moderna, and enable investors and traders to efficiently gain leveraged and short exposure to the target stock.

How can investors push companies to have a more positive societal impact from their products and operations? And how can that impact be measured? Responsible Investor and Qontigo host a panel of experts who discuss these topics and more.

Variety in ESG data can enrich investment strategies and provide an edge in performance. Qontigo’s open-architecture approach is to find and leverage the most robust sustainability information available, with no limitation to any single provider, for each investing case.