Europe ETF News for the Past Year
BlackRock launches five climate transition ETFs in Europe
June 25, 2024--Each of the Irish-domiciled Ucits funds will have a different geographic focus
BlackRock has rolled out a five-strong range of climate transition exchange traded funds aiming to provide investors with access to "companies leading in the transition to a low-carbon economy".
The Ireland-domiciled iShares MSCI Climate Transition Aware Ucits ETFs are classified under Article 8 of the EU's Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation.
Each of the five ETFs has a different geographic focus: global, Europe, US, Japan, and the European economic and monetary union.
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Source: ft.com
The implications of the European Union's new fiscal rules
June 20, 2024--Executive summary
European Union countries are required by the EU Treaty to keep their budget deficits within 3 percent of GDP, and their public debt within 60 percent of GDP. A new framework to enforce these rules is based on country-specific debt sustainability analyses (DSA) and uses a single indicator, a measure of public expenditure, as the annual fiscal policy target. These changes are welcome.
To assess the sustainability of public finances, it is much better to focus on the likely evolution of the debt path than to rely on simple numerical rules. Public expenditures net of changes to tax policy are a far better target for fiscal policy than the deficit, since they are under the control of the government and cannot give rise to pro-cyclical fiscal policy (excess spending in good times, fiscal cuts in bad times). These features could increase the framework’s efficiency and improve compliance.
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Source: bruegel.org
Europe's New ESG Rules Spark Questions About What Sustainable Investing Looks Like
June 20, 2024--To comply with the EU's new rules, investment firms would have to change the name of thousands of funds or sell off $40 billion in assets.
The European Union's move to tighten rules for sustainable investing will put two-thirds of Europe's so-called ESG funds on notice, forcing thousands of them to either sell off $40 billion in assets or change their names in a way that more accurately and transparently reflects their holdings.
Last month, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) initiated a long-awaited process to tackle contradictions and confusion in the world of sustainable investing. This move highlights the long-standing debate over whether stocks such as fossil fuel companies should be included in ESG-environmental, social and governance-funds.
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Source: insideclimatenews.org
Europe's mutual funds continue to bleed heavily
June 17, 2024--Investors have pulled €258bn from actively managed equity funds since the start of 2022
Europe's active asset managers face an unprecedented challenge in dealing with continued mutual fund outflows.
Investors have pulled €258bn from actively managed equity funds since the start of 2022, with a further €140bn withdrawn from multi-asset and alternative funds, Morningstar data shows.
However, passive product providers have prospered from investor demand, with inflows to index and exchange traded equity funds totalling €256bn.
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Source: ft.com
Forecasts for the UK economy: July 2024
July 17, 2024--A comparison of independent forecasts for the UK economy in July 2024.
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Source: gov.uk
ESMA publishes latest edition of its newsletter
June 12, 2024--The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), the EU's financial markets regulator and supervisor, has today published its latest edition of the Spotlight on Markets Newsletter.
Your one-stop-shop in the world of EU financial markets focuses in May on the Position Paper with recommendations for more effective and attractive capital markets in the EU and includes a factsheet with the main highlights.
ESMA also issued a Statement with initial guidance to firms using Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies when they provide investment services to retail clients. Following its public statement of 14 December 2023, guidelines establishing harmonised criteria for the use of ESG and sustainability terms in fund names were shared.
The financial markets regulator also published the Final Report on the rules on conflicts of interests of crypto-asset service providers (CASP) under the Markets in Crypto Assets Regulation (MiCA).
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Source: ESMA
New bond ETFs from BNP Paribas on Xetra: access to long term euro corporate bonds with high ESG standards
June 11, 2024--As of today, two new exchange-traded funds issued by BNP Paribas Asset Management are tradable on Xetra and Börse Frankfurt.
The BNP Paribas Easy € Corp bond SRI Fossil Free 7-10Y UCITS ETF offers investors access to a portfolio of euro-denominated fixed income corporate bonds that have high standards of sustainable values.
The selected bonds have an investment grade rating and a remaining maturity of between 7 and 10 years.
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Source: Xetra
A new bond ETF from Amundi on Xetra: access to the global bond market for the highest rated sustainable corporate bonds
June 11, 2024--Since today, a new exchange-traded fund issued by Amundi Asset Management has been tradable via Xetra and Börse Frankfurt.
The Amundi Global Corporate SRI 1-5Y Highest Rated UCITS ETF USD Hedged provides investors with access to the global bond market for high-quality corporate bonds in various issuance currencies.
The selected bonds have an investment grade rating and a remaining maturity of between 7 and 10 years.
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Source: Xetra
New equity ETF from WisdomTree on Xetra: access to climate-neutral and sustainable companies from developed countries worldwide
June 11, 2024--Since Tuesday, a new exchange-traded fund issued by WisdomTree has been tradable on Xetra and Börse Frankfurt.
The WisdomTree Global Sustainable Equity UCITS ETF offers investors the opportunity to invest in a portfolio of companies from developed countries worldwide that make a positive contribution to social and environmental goals.
These include companies that generate a high proportion of their revenue from business activities that comply with the EU taxonomy or make a positive contribution to the sustainability goals of the 2030 Agenda. Companies with targets approved by the Science Based Targets Initiative to reduce CO2 emissions or first-class key figures in the area of gender or environmental and social risk management also qualify.
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Source: Xetra
ECB-Euro area bank interest rate statistics: April 2024
June 5, 2024--Composite cost-of-borrowing indicator for new loans to corporations and for new loans to households for house purchase unchanged at 5.18% and 3.80%, respectively
Composite interest rate for new deposits with agreed maturity from corporations broadly unchanged at 3.65%; interest rate for overnight deposits from corporations broadly unchanged at 0.91%
Composite interest rate for new deposits with agreed maturity from households decreased by 5 basis points to 3.11%, driven by both interest rate and weight effects; interest rate for overnight deposits from households unchanged at 0.39%
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Source: ecb.europa.eu
