The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have gained widespread recognition in recent years. As part of this, green bonds aimed at addressing environmental issues, social bonds that target social outcomes, and sustainability bonds used for both social and green projects have been attracting attention globally.

The importance of incorporating environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors into investment strategies continues to be the subject of active discussion. Going forward, the need to include performance evaluation and risk analysis of SDG bonds in ESG investing is expected to increase.

NOMURA-BPI¹ was developed in 1986 to reflect the overall performance of the secondary market for publicly offered, fixed-income bonds issued in Japan. The new index will select SDG bonds from a universe of NOMURA-BPI constituents based on certain rules, as well as calculate the return on investment.

The index will be developed by NSC’s Index Operations Department. NRI will determine eligibility as SDG bonds and provide data associated with the index.

The index value, rulebook and other details will be publicly available on NSC’s web site, http://qr.nomura.co.jp/en/bpi/index.html, from autumn 2019.

By developing this index, NSC and NRI aim to contribute to economic and sustainable social development and promote initiatives to achieve the SDGs, while supporting the growth of the SDG bond market in Japan.

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  Called the NRI Bond Performance Index (NRI-BPI) when initially published.

Nomura

Nomura is an Asia-headquartered financial services group with an integrated global network spanning over 30 countries. By connecting markets East & West, Nomura services the needs of individuals, institutions, corporates and governments through its four business divisions: Retail, Asset Management, Wholesale (Global Markets and Investment Banking), and Merchant Banking. Founded in 1925, the firm is built on a tradition of disciplined entrepreneurship, serving clients with creative solutions and considered thought leadership. For further information about Nomura, visit www.nomura.com

NRI

Founded in 1965, NRI is a leading global provider of system solutions and consulting services with annual sales exceeding $3.7 billion. NRI offers clients holistic support of all aspects of operations from back- to front-office, with NRI’s research expertise and innovative solutions as well as understanding of operational challenges faced by financial services firms. The clients include broker-dealers, asset managers, banks and insurance providers. NRI has its offices globally including New York, London, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Singapore, with over 13,000 employees.
For more information, visit https://www.nri.com/en/service/fis