The latest news in investment offerings, financial products and other services relative to wealth advisors and their clients.

Columbia Threadneedle Investments
Columbia Threadneedle Investments, a global asset management group, has launched the CT Global Social Bond Fund, designed to deliver long-term investment returns to UK investors whilst having a positive social impact. 

The fund, managed by a social bond team led by fixed income senior portfolio manager Tammie Tang, aims to use the size of the bond market to target social outcomes in a growing "global universe," the firm said in a statement. It is the latest addition to Columbia Threadneedle’s social impact range, which includes social bond strategies focused on the UK and Europe.

Since 2013, there has been considerable growth in social, green and sustainable investment products, the firm continued, and the fund has been designed to take advantage of this.

“The launch of the CT Global Social Bond fund is an important step in Columbia Threadneedle’s ongoing commitment to, and belief in, the power of impact investing,” Tang said.

“As pioneers in this area, we are confident in the potency of bond investing to tackle globally systemic problems without sacrificing financial returns in line with the benchmark. By actively selecting specific bonds with positive social outcomes, rather than excluding bonds through conventional negative screens, we aim to generate positive social and financial results,” Tang continued.

“Following increased client demand for both our UK and European social bond strategies, working with clients we believe the time is right to expand our range to include a global strategy,” Michaela Collet Jackson, head of distribution, EMEA, at Columbia Threadneedle Investments, said.

“We are excited to offer clients this new offering, which provides access to our tried and tested model of achieving financial returns and positive social impact, now using the global universe of socially labelled bonds. Initially available as an OEIC for UK investors, we intend to provide a version of the strategy available to European investors in the near future,” she added.

Invesco
Invesco launched this week an exchange-traded fund for investors wanting a simple, low-cost way to gain diversified exposure to global equity markets. 

The Invesco FTSE All-World UCITS ETF will track the performance of the FTSE All-World Index, which offers exposure to more than 4,000 large and mid-sized companies across 49 developed and emerging market countries, the firm said in a statement. The Invesco ETF will have an annual charge of 0.15 per cent, making it a low cost ETF among similar exposures in Europe. 

Global equity ETFs have been the most popular among investors in every year since 2019, and in the first five months of 2023 have attracted $13 billion of net new assets, 43 per cent of all equity ETF flows, the firm continued. Data analysed by Invesco show a clear trend over this time period that suggests increasing demand for products that combine developed and emerging market countries.

Gary Buxton, head of EMEA ETFs and indexed strategies at Invesco, said: “A basic investing principle is that spreading your investment around many different securities can reduce the risk compared to investing in individual stocks.” 

“Taking it a step further, diversifying across different securities throughout the world can reduce risk versus investing in a single country or region. The idea for our new ETF is to provide every investor the opportunity for well-diversified portfolio, with one simple ETF delivering immediate exposure to the world’s equity markets at a low cost,” he added.