Blog posts

The contracts are part of an expanding family of sustainability-focused listed derivatives designed to tap increasing demand as investors turn to ESG-compliant instruments to manage portfolios.

The race to reach net-zero emissions by 2050 is on, and many investors are adopting indices with a decarbonization path to achieve their climate objectives. Our latest whitepaper looks at Paris-aligned indices covering the US and Europe and seeks to answer the following questions: in which region can investors make the most impact, and how much risk are they taking in the process?

US policymakers have in recent months stepped up efforts to address climate risk in financial markets. During a webinar organized by Responsible Investor, a panel of experts from 2° Investing Ventures, ISS ESG, New York Department of Financial Services, PRI and Qontigo, discussed these moves and explored some of the directions US climate regulation may take.

A new whitepaper from Qontigo’s Sustainable Investment team is a primer to understanding and untangling the multiple — and often confusing — climate data alternatives that have emerged in recent years.

The STOXX® Global 1800 Index rises 1.5% in May as countries lift restrictions put in place to control the COVID-19 pandemic. The pan-European STOXX® Europe 600 Index increases 2.7% in euros. Both benchmarks mark a new record high in the month.

The new DAX® ESG Target Index offers a sustainable alternative to Germany’s flagship DAX that is optimized to maximize the ESG score of the portfolio, with a tracking-error constraint, and that simultaneously reduces the carbon intensity by at least 30%.

ESG integration, sustainability, and impact investing…While there may be overlap in the meanings of these terms, they each represent a distinct approach to “doing well while doing good” in investor portfolios.

Dispersion trading caught the attention of many in 2020 amid a marked divergence between different types of stocks (‘work-from-home’ vs. ‘reopening’ businesses) and factors (growth vs. value). We caught up with experienced market participants at Optiver and Ellipsis AM to find out more about how best to trade and exploit such market backdrops.

The offering breaks fresh ground in indexing and brings a smart and robust strategy to enhance structured products at a time when the implied dividends market has challenged the industry. The indices, which have been exclusively licensed to Citi, enable the structured-product issuer to remove any single-name dividend risk from their books and deliver more attractive product terms to clients and end investors.

Manuela Sperandeo, BlackRock’s Head of Sustainable Indexing for EMEA, explains why the world’s largest asset manager has placed sustainability as its new standard for investing, and how working with an index provider helps it best serve its clients’ responsible-investing goals.

Science-based emissions-reduction targets (SBTs) help verify that a company has embarked on a pathway to reduce its carbon footprint and get aligned with climate action efforts. The inclusion of SBTs in indices provides an efficient solution to investors wishing to adopt a responsible approach in the face of the global warming crisis.

Global index rises 4.5% in month amid ongoing expectations for a post-pandemic economic recovery. Gains are led by US and European markets, and by Momentum stocks, which came back in favor after a lackluster first quarter.