FTSE Russell Builds Tax-Exempt Index Tracker

FTSE Russell has launched the FTSE Municipal Tax-Exempt Investment-Grade Bond Index. The index tracks the market for tax-exempt U.S. dollar-denominated bonds issued by municipalities domiciled in the U.S. and U.S. territories with an investment grade credit rating. The index is a new barometer for the large and diverse fixed income market, which is compact by design to allow for ease of replication, without compromising representativeness.

The U.S. municipal bond market is comprised of a diverse mix of issuers and security types. The new index can be used as the foundation for a wide range of custom solutions based on attributes, including credit quality, state, municipal sector classification and maturity. The offering also includes granular sub-indexes to allow for greater visibility and analysis of the municipal bond market structure.

 “The US Municipal bond market is a significant domestic fixed income market, and the launch of our new index reaffirms our commitment to expand our global fixed income coverage,” says Scott Harman, managing director, fixed income product management. “FTSE Russell has been steadily growing its multi-asset capabilities offering comprehensive coverage across all major public markets and the new index, which tracks one of the largest bond markets in the world, can be used as the basis for a wide range of custom solutions.”

According to FTSE Russell, features of the new index include: tracking for a more liquid subset of the overall outstanding municipal universe based on higher deal and issue size thresholds; back-testing data available through December 31, 2012; customization options; evaluated pricing service by Refinitiv, a financial markets data and infrastructure provider, at local market close (4 p.m. EST); and more.