News & Research

Qontigo, a global provider of indices and analytics and part of Deutsche Börse Group, has licensed the STOXX PSBC China A ESG Index to Postal Savings Bank of China (PSBC). The index serves as an underlying for an onshore wealth management vehicle launched by PSBC. The index applies an ESG score, exclusionary screens, and incorporates Qontigo’s quantitative portfolio construction tools.

The customized index is an optimized solution that balances multiple investment objectives and uses various inputs, including LGIM’s proprietary ESG data.

Qontigo has licensed the newly launched iSTOXX World Min Vol ESG Index to Legal & General Investment Management (LGIM). The index will be used for a large pension fund mandate. This index is based on STOXX’s broadest equity universe, the STOXX World AC (All Countries), including both Developed and Emerging Markets and incorporates both proprietary ESG data provided by LGIM and data from ISS ESG.

The STOXX® Global 1800 index rebounded from a two-year low last month on investors’ expectations that the Federal Reserve may soon slow down the pace of interest-rate hikes.

Dutch pension fund manager APG, which co-designed the responsible-investment indices with Qontigo, has received an award from Pensioen Pro for its pioneering work following the introduction of the indices.

ESG funds can target very different objectives and their names mean very different things. So, what, in reality, are their overall achievements when it comes to broad sustainability metrics? What active risk are investors taking on to accomplish them? And can optimization help balance sustainability and risk? A new whitepaper from Qontigo examines these matters.

In this paper, our goal is to show how sustainability ETF exposures to a number of sustainability-related factors may vary. It is eminently clear to us that investors with a view about key sustainability features cannot rely on the fund name, but instead need to do more digging into whether their fund meets the required criteria.

Qontigo noted in a research report that as of August, 346B euros were invested in passive ESG ETFs listed across the world. Of that figure, 53% went towards general ESG funds, while 45% of the flows were allocated towards environmental ETFs.

This article aims to provide an update on the responsible-investing characteristics of the iSTOXX APG World Responsible Indices, and reaffirm that the process continues to create indices with substantial improvement in sustainability criteria without straying too much from the parent benchmark.

While ETF strategies focusing on the environment and general ESG have captured 39 billion euros this year, little to no money has gone to funds targeting principally social and governance issues, according to data from Qontigo’s Market Intelligence Team.

Saumya Mehrotra from Qontigo’s Sustainable Investment team joined a panel of experts during the recent Sustainable Investment Forum North America in New York, to discuss how ESG data and applications are evolving. In her words, while sustainability information is becoming more specialized, so are investors’ approaches to it.

At the Sustainable Investment Forum North America 2022, Saumya Mehrotra, Associate Principal, Sustainable Investment shares how the combination of our open ESG data and architecture, index platform and analytic capabilities enable our clients on their journey to full sustainability integration.