Wealth & finance International - Wealth & Money Management Awards 2017

Wealth & Money Management Awards 2017 10 Index Specialist of the Year 2017 - Europe STOXX Ltd. is the operator of Deutsche Boerse Group’s index business, and a global provider of innovative and tradable index concepts. We invited CEO Matteo Andreetto to talk us through the firm and the services it offers. Company: STOXX Ltd Contact: Matteo Andreetto Address: Manessestrasse 85, 8045 Zürich, Switzerland Phone: 0041 43 430 71 60 STOXX maintains and calculates the STOXX Global index family, which consists of total market, broad and blue-chip indices for the regions Americas, Europe, Asia/Pacific and sub-regions Latin America and BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) as well as global markets. Matteo talks us through the firm’s global presence and how it works to ensure excellence for clients. “Over the past 12 months we have expanded globally by leveraging different talent pools and the global footprint of Deutsche Boerse, our parent company– in London and Prague among other locations where there are dedicated resources to support STOXX operations. We have strengthened our presence in North America. We opened offices in Tokyo, Sydney and Hong Kong. In some new markets, we work together with local partners, to better identify the needs of institutional investors in these countries and provide the best investment solutions. In Japan, we work with MUTB, for example. “Overall, we see an increased demand from big global pension funds that allocate more capital to passive products – and want customized solutions. Pension funds with trillions of dollars in assets could buy off-the-shelf ETFs but they also customize strategies, by excluding some components and emphasizing others. The ability to design such products becomes key for index providers. We believe we have the right platform to serve those institutional investors. We decided 12 month ago to open our architecture on data and IP. Instead of forcing investors to only use our own proprietary data, we collaborate with the best data provider in each field.” Last year’s figures for the Group revealed that its index business is one of the strongest growth engines for the company. Over the last several years, it has grown globally year after year and is the leader in the structured products space with a market share of over 86 per cent. The firm’s strength comes from its background in derivatives and structured products; this has driven the development of intelligent indices and factor or smart beta products. Alternative weighting schemes have been around for a long time. Its background in creating investment solutions and a smart beta library of nearly 20 years help a lot when you think about bringing new products to the market. Currently, the firm is best known for the leading European equity indices EURO STOXX 50, STOXX Europe 50 and STOXX Europe 600. Matteo outlines how the firm’s diverse range of products help it to flourish. “At STOXX, we are the marketing agent for the indices of Deutsche Boerse since 2010. We are also the European market leader in the provision of iNAVs for ETF issuers. Our track-record for multi-asset class and multi-currency portfolios offers every market participant a detailed snapshot of their fund assets at any time. “The use of ESG, single and multi-factor in Europe, market neutral and not market neutral has enabled STOXX to diversify the market universe. Across the board the institutional investors are a focused on the early adoption of innovation to address risk premia in their portfolio. Innovation in the STOXX indices has seen a new range of ETFs from iShares which are based on iSTOXX FactSet Thematic Indices that capture megatrends in investing such as the ageing population, the rise of automation and robotics, digitalisation and breakthrough healthcare. We went for open architecture on two different levels. We partner up with the best data provider to create a differentiated product – it’s not just the price but its ESG scores, or carbon footprint. For instance, for our carbon footprint product, we used two different data sources which enabled us to combine actual and projected exposures based on industry trends. “Additionally, we have also been approached to design indices that identify companies who can benefit from Brexit – and those who would suffer most from a hard Brexit. There is a significant demand from asset managers, banks, hedge funds and pension funds. They want to have a tool to play that theme from a tactical point of view. We launched the True Exposure Index family two years ago. There are True Exposure UK Indices with companies that make 25, 50, 75 or 100 percent of their WM170010