The Spanish stock exchange operator Bolsas y Mercados Españoles and FTSE Group, the global index provider, plan to launch FTSE4Good IBEX, a new responsible investment index made up
The Spanish stock exchange operator Bolsas y Mercados Españoles and FTSE Group, the global index provider, plan to launch FTSE4Good IBEX, a new responsible investment index made up of Spanish companies listed on BME’s markets and made suitable for structured products and exchange-traded funds.
The new index, which will be made available in the first quarter of 2008, will include existing large and mid-cap FTSE4Good Spanish constituents, and the criteria and methodology will be based on evolving selection criteria in line with broad FTSE4Good standards. According to the partners, the criteria will be set at a level that is challenging yet achievable to encourage Spanish constituent companies to strive to meet them.
The FTSE Group says the FTSE4Good Index has become a globally recognised benchmark for investors wishing to identify responsible business practice, and the launch of the FTSE4Good IBEX is intended to meet growing interest in socially responsible investing in Spain. Constituents are liquidity-screened to make the index suitable for the creation of financial products, such as certificates and ETFs.
‘Through this initiative BME takes a step forward in its objective of providing the financial community with new products, in this case a new index on which structured products can be issued in future,’ says BME head of equities Jorge Yzaguirre Scharfhausen. ‘BME aims to promote responsible investing through projects that encourage companies to adopt socially responsible business practices.’
Imogen Dillon Hatcher, managing director of FTSE Group for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, says: ‘FTSE is delighted to have partnered with BME to create an innovative new index for investors who are concerned about environmental and social risk in their portfolios and are looking to identify and invest in Spanish companies that meet both local and international corporate social responsibility standards. The FTSE4Good IBEX index will offer investors a new tool specifically designed to support structured products and ETFs.’
