S&P expands custom index business to fixed income and commodities

Standard & Poor's is expanding its custom index business beyond equities, currencies and real estate as client demand increases for non-correlated asset classes. The index provider will now be able to construct offerings based on commodities and fixed income, including global money markets, sovereign and corporate debt, leveraged loans and credit default swaps

"We think it's very timely given that we're seeing a lot of interest in non-equity asset classes. People are searching for a lower correlation to equities through exposure to both commodities and fixed income" says Tim Eisenhauer, head of custom-based indexes at S&P in Sydney.

The provider believes that the new area will be interesting to structured product and exchange-traded fund (ETF) providers. "We're seeing a lot of interest now for upcoming launches in September," says Eisenhauer, who adds