Barclays makes changes to benchmark fixed-income indexes

By Jennifer Chiou

New York, Nov. 6 - Barclays announced updates to its benchmark fixed-income indexes following its annual index review and governance process in October.

Among the key changes, Russian ruble- and Turkish lira-denominated local currency government debt will be eligible for the Barclays Global Aggregate index on March 31, 2014, according to a news release.

For ruble-denominated debt, only non-amortizing Russian OFZ bonds issued after 2008 will be eligible for the index.

Effective immediately, the Hungarian forint will no longer be an eligible currency for the Global Aggregate index due to an absence of investment-grade index-eligible debt.

In other changes, commercial mortgage-backed securities issued and backed by U.S. agencies will become eligible for the U.S. Aggregate and Global Aggregate indexes on June 30, 2014. Barclays said it intends to launch a standalone U.S. Agency CMBS benchmark early in 2014.

The minimum amount outstanding for the U.S. Mortgage Backed Securities index constituents will be raised to $1 billion from $250 million at the end of March, the release said.

Further, Egypt and Croatia will be removed from the flagship Barclays EM Local Currency Government index on March 31, 2014 due to liquidity and investability concerns.

The release added that the Barclays Multiverse index, a broad fixed-rate multi-currency benchmark, will be expanded on March 31, 2014 to include bonds eligible for the Euro Treasury High Yield and EM Local Currency Government indexes that are not already tracked by these two existing "multiverse components."

For the company's high-yield indexes, new fixed local currency minimums will be set for each currency eligible for the Pan European High Yield index as of March 31, 2014. The current minimum issue size for euro-denominated high-yield bonds will remain at €100 million, but other local currency minimums will be adjusted to reflect appropriate high-yield benchmark issue sizes.

Barclays is a London-based financial institution.

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