SBI, FTSE Russell to launch India Bond Index

 FTSE Russell, the global index provider, has announced the signing of a letter of intent between FTSE TMX Global Debt Capital Markets and SBI, to develop in partnership, a new index, FTSE-SBI India Bond Index, tracking Indian fixed income securities.

SBI Mutual Fund, the asset management subsidiary of SBI, intends to use the new index as the basis for a new investment product, SBI said.

Advised by SBI Capital Markets ( SBICap), the letter of intent is a first for FTSE Russell and provides it, and parent company London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG), with an important platform in India’s burgeoning domestic financial market, the bank said.

 “We are delighted to be partnering with London Stock Exchange Group to create the FTSE SBI Bond Indices for India. Despite investor appetite to access India’s ongoing growth story, at present Indian issuers’ bonds do not have a credible global benchmark for passive investment funds that captures the Indian growth story. The FTSE SBI Indian Bond Indices will be a catalyst in the ongoing development and deepening of Indian sovereign and corporate bond markets,” SBI Chairman Arundhati Bhattacharya said.