Bloomberg and MSCI Launch Emerging Market Asia Credit ESG Index Suite

Bloomberg and MSCI Inc. (NYSE: MSCI), a leading provider of critical decision support tools and services for the global investment community, today announced the launch of the Bloomberg Barclays MSCI Emerging Market Asia Credit Environmental, Social, Governance (ESG) index suite for investors. This is the first Bloomberg Barclays MSCI suite consisting of three index variants that track the performance of the emerging market U.S. dollar-denominated credit debt in the Asia-ex. Japan region, while incorporating measures for ESG risk and exposures.

“We are reaching a tipping point where investor demand for seamless integration of sustainability principles in investments is driving demand for new indexes, tools and analytics across all asset classes,” said Jana Haines, Head of Index Products for the Americas and EMEA and Global Head of Fixed Income Index Products at MSCI. “We are delighted to collaborate with Bloomberg to offer investors this new ESG index suite, enabling them to better manage their investment portfolios.”

The ESG series has three flagship ESG index variants to meet different ESG investment approaches; Socially Responsible, Sustainability, and ESG-Weighted. These variants are based on the Bloomberg Barclays Emerging Market Asia USD Credit Index, and additional ESG eligibility criteria and/or weighting schemes are applied to arrive at this new ESG benchmark index family.

“Conversations about ESG investing have accelerated on the back of the current pandemic, with investors also looking to diversify their portfolios and search for yields with emerging market assets, especially in Asia,” said Ji Zhuang, APAC Head of Indices at Bloomberg. “The newly-launched index suite addresses global investor appetite for more ESG considerations and risk management in their emerging market benchmarks, and we look forward to launching new products for the market.”

With a 47-year tradition, the Bloomberg Barclays Indices are the most widely-used indices for fixed income investors seeking objective, rules-based and representative benchmarks to measure asset class risk and returns. A leader in fixed income investing, Bloomberg Barclays Indices offers comprehensive market coverage, including global fixed income, inflation-linked and swap benchmark indices.

For more information about Bloomberg Barclays indices, please visit https://www.bloombergindices.com/bloomberg-barclays-indices/. Bloomberg also provides a number of sustainable finance solutions, offering data-driven insights to help investors integrate ESG throughout the full investment process. This includes solutions to combine and standardize company-reported and third-party data, access to news and research content, analytics and research workflows built specifically for investors around ESG.

About Bloomberg

Bloomberg, the global business and financial information and news leader, gives influential decision makers a critical edge by connecting them to a dynamic network of information, people and ideas. The company’s strength – delivering data, news and analytics through innovative technology, quickly and accurately – is at the core of the Bloomberg Terminal service. Bloomberg’s enterprise solutions build on the company’s core strength: leveraging technology to allow customers to access, integrate, distribute and manage data and information across organizations more efficiently and effectively. For more information, visit www.bloomberg.com 

About MSCI

MSCI is a leading provider of critical decision support tools and services for the global investment community. With over 45 years of expertise in research, data and technology, we power better investment decisions by enabling clients to understand and analyze key drivers of risk and return and confidently build more effective portfolios. We create industry-leading research-enhanced solutions that clients use to gain insight into and improve transparency across the investment process. To learn more, please visit www.msci.com.