State Street Global Advisors has launched the State Street Global High Yield Bond ESG Screened Index Fund.

SSGA says the fund offers investors access to the global high yield market, along with returns aligned with the fund’s benchmark index, the ICE BofA Global High Yield Constrained Index. The new fund is categorized as an Article 8 fund under the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR), and excludes securities based on UN Global Compact violations, controversial weapons and Swedish Ethical Council criteria.

David Furey, Head of Fixed Income Strategists EMEA, said “As investors increasingly look for reliable and cost-effective ways to harness the full return potential of fixed income sectors today, this fund can offer exactly that for high yield investors. The structural improvements in high yield markets in recent years, combined with the continuous refinements to our investment process, have made indexing in high yield a viable and attractive option for investors today. Since our first indexed high yield strategy in 2004, we have developed a variety of techniques that seek to control risks and costs very tightly, but to then also take advantage of market inefficiencies that can add incremental value, enabling us to track the performance of high yield benchmarks very closely.”