Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. (NYSE: ICE), has announced strong 2021 growth in assets under management for thematic, climate and ESG ETFs listed on Asian exchanges using ICE’s indices as benchmarks.
The firm writes that this growth was driven by a record number of issuers selecting ICE Indices for new ETFs in growing Asian markets, including Hong Kong, India, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand.
Since 2018, AUM for ETFs listed on Asian exchanges tracking ICE’s indices has nearly quadrupled, totalling USD17.1 billion at the end of 2021, the firm says. Much of that growth came from the launch of 11 new thematic, climate and ESG ETFs in 2021, which quickly accumulated over USD1.72 billion in AUM by the end of the year, according to ICE.
“Although AUM benchmarked to our traditional fixed income and equity indices continues to grow, thematic, climate and ESG ETFs have become an important driver for our Asian index business,” says Magnus Cattan, Head of ICE Fixed Income & Data Services, Asia Pacific. “Investments in ETFs representing the EV and semiconductor sectors played a major part in our growth, and the launch of two new ETFs late in the year that are benchmarked to indices on ICE’s global carbon futures markets was an important development in expanding investor access to environmental markets.”
“We continue to leverage and build on our core index business to launch exciting products that achieve our goal of connecting customers and investors to opportunity,” says Amanda Hindlian, President of Fixed Income and Data Services at ICE. “Our thematic indices offer targeted benchmarks that can bring more diversity to portfolios, and in many cases, investment returns that outperform traditional markets.”
