EAGG News and Press, iShares ESG U.S. Aggregate Bond From 02/23/23

Summary A slowdown in new issuances, anecdotal evidence about a narrowing ‘greenium’ spread, as well as a spike in green bond default rates, have raised tricky questions for investors. Green bonds have been considered as a tool for investors hedge against climate risks and...

Summary In 2020, the European Commission introduced the principle into the sustainable finance regulatory framework including for climate indexes, as labelled ‘Paris-aligned’ or ‘climate transition’ benchmarks (PABs and CTBs). A prominent approach suggested i...

Summary While global green bond markets saw a notable slowdown - particularly in Europe and the United States because of rising interest rate and geopolitical conflicts, China’s onshore green bond market sustained its momentum in 2022. Despite reaching the $2 trillion milestone i...

Summary With an almost 60 trillion-dollar sovereign debt market, the case for ESG integration remains unclear. Market practices that target the reduction of aggregate ESG risk may have the perverse impact of increasing funding gaps and thus decreasing the effectiveness and impact of sov...

Summary A day after the Fed’s announcement, the ECB raised its key interest rate 0.5% to 2.5% on Thursday. This was the fifth straight increase in the ECB’s key interest rate. Bond investors are fully expecting inflation to cool off, and that the Fed’s key interest ...

Summary UnitedHealth Group has been making important governance changes in response to investor feedback, with sustainability a growing priority. As sustainability has increased in importance, UNH has revamped and elevated board oversight of ESG. The establishment of a corporate sus...

Summary Engaging a company on strategy can sometimes lead to concrete changes. In an October 2022 engagement with Cellnex, we encouraged the company to embrace a fiscally responsible strategy in order to protect the business in a high interest rate environment. Cellnex’s resp...

Summary Market divergence between bulls and bears in 2023. Are markets listening to what central banks are saying about interest rates? Why perception may be worse than reality when it comes to market sentiment. There appear to be widely differing views on what 202...

Summary The Fed’s interest rate and liquidity tools are blunt instruments, particularly in a service-oriented economy. If inflation indeed moderates from here, it is likely that interest rate volatility moderates alongside it. Monetary policy has created the asset-on/asset-of...

Summary Passive environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investing has become increasingly active. It’s time for a rethink. As more investors look to align sustainability goals with their investments, global ESG assets under management (AUM) have soared from $2.2 trillion in 2...