Bloomberg and MSCI have expanded their fixed income ESG offering with the launch of nine high yield indices.
Incorporating MSCI’s ESG considerations, the products are co-branded as the Bloomberg Barclays MSCI ESG High Yield indices.
The family of high yield bond indices include three variants across US, pan-euro and global.
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The Bloomberg Barclays MSCI High Yield SRI indices are designed to exclude issuers with substantial revenue derived from industries such as adult entertainment, alcohol, gambling, tobacco, controversial military weapons, civilian firearms, nuclear power, and genetically modified organisms (GMOs).
The Bloomberg Barclays MSCI High Yield Sustainability indices seek to include issuers which have higher MSCI ESG ratings.
The Bloomberg Barclays MSCI High Yield ESG Weighted indices use MSCI ESG ratings to adjust issuer market weights.
Chris Hackel (pictured), index product manager at Bloomberg, commented: “With ESG becoming increasingly integrated into investors’ workflows, we are always working to expand our ESG offerings to meet this demand.
“Our longstanding partnership with MSCI has provided investors with a broad portfolio of ESG index solutions.”
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Eric Moen, head of ESG products for MSCI ESG Research, added: “As investors increasingly pursue long-term, sustainable investment approaches, there is more demand for ESG coverage and transparency within the fixed income asset class.
“We look to provide investors with the tools and transparency they need to effectively integrate ESG considerations into their investment processes.”
Last month, MSCI called on the asset management industry to integrate ESG considerations throughout their investment processes in its Principles of Sustainable Investing framework.
