The latest in fund and investment news from around the world.

Bloomberg
The news, information and business services group has jumped into the business of providing equity market benchmarks, a move putting it up against the likes of Standard & Poor’s, FTSE Group and MSCI.

The US firm now offers US equity benchmark capabilities. The equity offering includes the Bloomberg US Large Cap Index (ticker: B500) as well as growth, value and dividend indices. These benchmarks will serve as the basis for the new Bloomberg SASB ESG Index family, which also include environmental, social and governance-weighted versions of the value, growth and dividend indices.

The ESG index family includes the Bloomberg SASB ESG equity index for US large cap equity, and the Bloomberg SASB ESG fixed income index for investment-grade corporate bonds, Bloomberg said in a statement.

The firm said that the indices focus on the industry-specific ESG factors that are most likely to influence how companies perform financially.