Barclays, MSCI to offer green bond index to target environmental projects

By Tali Rackner

Norfolk, Va., July 1 – Barclays and MSCI Inc. announced an agreement to launch a new green bond index, expanding on their environmental, social and governance fixed-income benchmark index family launched in June, according to a press release.

The index is intended to reflect the fixed-income market funding projects and initiatives with direct environmental benefits. These indexes may serve as a benchmark for dedicated green bond funds as well as informational measures of green bond risks and return.

The green bond index will be available for institutional clients to license for their index-linked investment products, such as exchange-traded funds, separately managed accounts and structured products.

From now until July 31, MSCI and Barclays will open a formal consultation period to solicit feedback from the market. This consultation is intended to ascertain how the market identifies, evaluates and classifies green bonds to help determine an appropriate benchmark index methodology, the release said.

Barclays is an international financial services provider. MSCI is a provider of investment decision support tools to investors globally, including asset managers, banks, hedge funds and pension funds.

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