We offer four investment-grade ETFs, three focused on single currency exposures denominated in USD, EUR or GBP and one which provides global bond exposure. Our range of single-currency Corporate Bond ESG ETFs track the Bloomberg MSCI Liquid Corporate ESG Weighted SRI indices which are designed to provide broad and diversified exposure to investment grade corporate bonds denominated in the respective currencies.
Our Global Corporate Bond ESG ETF tracks the performance of the multi-currency Bloomberg MSCI Global Liquid Corporate ESG Weighted SRI Sustainable Bond index, which aims to provide broad and diversified exposure to investment grade corporate bonds issued in USD, EUR, GBP, and CAD, whilst applying more stringent ESG criteria than the single currency indices.
All indices, however, integrate ESG by not only applying negative screening but also by tilting constituent weights based on ESG ratings. Securities are excluded from the index if the issuing company:
- Has an MSCI ESG rating below BB (or doesn’t not have a rating) for our single currency ETFs, and a rating below BBB for our Global Corporate Bond ESG UCITS ETF;
- Is involved in (as defined by the index provider) alcohol, adult entertainment, controversial weapons, conventional weapons, fossil fuels, gambling, genetically modified organisms (GMOs), civilian firearms, nuclear weapons, nuclear power, oil sands, thermal coal, tobacco, or unconventional oil and gas;
- Is domiciled in an emerging market country;
- has faced very severe controversies pertaining to ESG issues over the last three years.
Each of the remaining securities has an ESG score that has been assigned using MSCI ESG metrics. This ESG Score is used to re-weight the eligible securities from their natural (market capitalisation) weights by applying a factor tilt in favour of constituents with higher ESG Scores.