Barclays and MSCI introduce indices to promote growth in ESG investment

Global ESG indices for fixed-income bonds are to be introduced by MSCI and Barclays.

MSCI, the investment consultancy and index provider, and Barclays, which publishes market bond benchmarks, will together market the indices alongside other ESG investment strategies for institutional investors’ bond portfolios.

The indices, co-branded but independently marketed by both companies, will be aimed at asset managers exposed to fixed income investments with ESG benchmark requirements. Clients will be able to use them to create index-linked investment products, separately managed accounts and structured products.

The two companies are now conducting a consultation with asset owners and managers to ascertain which ESG strategies are most relevant to investors and to define the indices’ methodologies.

Barclays’ head of index, portfolio and risk solutions, Waqas Samad, said: “As a leading provider of indices and analytics, Barclays continues to focus on innovation and so we are excited to work with MSCI, a clear leader in ESG research, to develop and offer a new market standard.

“This agreement brings our respective expertise in fixed income and ESG together to develop one product family.”

Baer Pettit, head of MSCI’s index business, said: “MSCI is very pleased to be working with Barclays to create a family of global ESG fixed income indices.

“The objective of MSCI’s ESG business is to provide investors with tools to integrate ESG factors across a broad range of asset classes.
 
“Working with Barclays, we expect these new benchmarks to fill a gap in the market and facilitate the growth of ESG investment.”