New benchmarks for bonds financing projects with environmental and social benefits

Bloomberg announced the launch of the Bloomberg Global Aggregate Green, Social, Sustainability Bond Indices, further growing its offering of leading fixed income ESG indices. The indices utilize the flagship Bloomberg Global Aggregate Index, the Bloomberg Sustainable Finance Group’s green, social and sustainability bond indicators, and fields that show alignment with the International Capital Market Association Green Bond, Social Bond and Sustainability Bond Principles and Guidelines.

By launching the indices with datasets from Bloomberg’s multi-award winning ESG data team, Bloomberg Terminal clients will also benefit from transparency into underlying bond documentation such as use of proceeds allocation to the eligible project categories and subcategories, as well as alignment to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, offering more seamless integration across portfolio management workflows, including for performance and attribution. A newly released “Sustainable Index Eligibility Indicator” field enables Bloomberg Terminal clients to analyze those securities which are currently included in the index, as well as those facing potential exclusion.

The universe of eligible instruments, ranging across Corporates, sovereign, supranational and agency bonds (SSAs), Municipals and Structured Products, are individually researched and maintained by a dedicated Bloomberg fixed income and ESG data team to ensure securities are reviewed and appropriately tagged in an expeditious manner, using Bloomberg’s extensive data gathering and processing technologies. All securities are further reviewed to ensure ongoing reporting is confirmed through the filing of impact and allocation reports by the issuer. This process results in a robust universe of eligible sustainable securities for inclusion in the index.

Jonathan Gardiner, Sustainable Indices Product Manager, Bloomberg Indices, said, “We endeavor to capture both short and long-term market trends with our sustainable index offerings and sustainable debt is swiftly growing, with global sustainable debt issuance surpassing $1 trillion year to date, according to data compiled by BloombergNEF. Building off Bloomberg’s flagship Global Aggregate index, our new Global Aggregate Green, Social & Sustainability Bond Indices incorporate the research of Bloomberg’s ESG and fixed income data teams to deliver a diverse set of indices to meet the varied needs of the investment community exploring this growing market.”

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The indices are now available for benchmarking, asset allocation and product creation purposes. The indices can be further customized to meet specific individual investor needs using additional fields such as specific exclusions, regulatory “aware” fields, such as SFDR and EU Taxonomy inputs, and even sector specific weightings, among others.

The Bloomberg Global Aggregate Green, Social, Sustainability Bond Indices comprise 24 new indices including, but not limited to:

• Bloomberg Global Aggregate Green Social Sustainability Bond Index (ticker: I37363US)
• Bloomberg Global Aggregate Green Bond Index (ticker: I37364US)
• Bloomberg Global Aggregate Social Bond Index (ticker: I37365US)
• Bloomberg Global Aggregate Sustainability Bond Index (ticker: I37356US)
• Bloomberg Aggregate EUR Green Social Sustainability Bond Index (ticker: I37358EU)
• Bloomberg Aggregate USD Green Social Sustainability Bond Index (ticker: I37375US)

Bloomberg ESG & Climate Indices help investors address sustainable finance initiatives across asset classes. Recently, Bloomberg introduced the Bloomberg U.S. Municipal Impact Index to track Green, Social, and Sustainability Municipal Bonds, and the Bloomberg Climate Indices including EU Paris-Aligned Benchmarks.

Bloomberg clients can access the available indices on the Bloomberg Terminal and all research and methodology for the indices is available at Bloombergindices.com. Bloomberg provides an independent, transparent approach to indexing for customers across the globe. To learn more about Bloomberg’s Sustainable Finance Solutions, visit Bloomberg ESG.

Source: Bloomberg