Handelsbanken’s two fund management companies, Handelsbanken Fonder AB (active management) and Xact Kapitalförvaltning AB (passive management) are to license several Solactive ESG indices for benchmarking purposes, effectively switching index providers for 20 equity and fixed income indices over the next few months.
Handelsbanken Fonder and Xact are the first clients to adopt Solactive’s recently established Solactive ISS ESG Screened Index Series, an index family that aims to track various size and regional segments of the global capital markets, including only companies operating with market standards on ESG controversy screens. To create the new index series, Solactive teamed up with ESG Provider ISS ESG, which provides independent and high-quality ESG data and analytics.
“We are excited that Handelsbanken Fonder and Xact adopted the indices only a few weeks after their introduction,” says Timo Pfeiffer (pictured), Head of Research at Solactive. “With more global players providing ESG-screened services for their clients, there is clearly a development towards impact investing; ESG is not a trend.”
Pär Nürnberg, CEO at Xact Kapitalförvaltning, says: “We are pleased to move our range of global ESG Index Funds to the newly launched ESG index suite by Solactive and ISS ESG. This partnership will facilitate existing as well as upcoming product development in line with growing client demand for sustainable indices we see from our clients.”
