Nasdaq  today announced that trading of the future based on the OMXS30 ESG Index has reached one million contracts since its launch a year ago. This marks the latest milestone in Nasdaq’s efforts to strengthen its position as a European and global leader in supporting sustainable investments.

“For Swedbank Robur, ESG derivatives are necessary to provide our customers with a full ESG exposure, also enabling us to manage daily cash flows,” says Magnus Linder, responsible for derivative trading at Swedbank Robur. “Money raised through OMXS30 ESG has ensured that one of our Index funds (Access Sweden) is fully invested and has money for cash withdrawals – a very real example of how sustainable investments create real value for investors.”

Since its launch on October 15, 2018, Nasdaq has seen a steadily increasing interest in trading the OMXS30 ESG future and of the 1,000,000 contracts, more than 80% come from institutional clients. On October 1, Open Interest stood at SEK 4.6 billion (USD 469 million), corresponding to 28,365 contracts.

“When we launched the OMXS30 ESG future, it was the first exchange listed ESG index future in the world. We are happy to see that with increasing innovation and a growing number of sustainable investment opportunities, investors continue to choose Nasdaq products,” says Alessandro Romani, Head of European Equity Derivatives at Nasdaq.

The milestone is the latest in a number of proof points underscoring the Nordic region’s leading position within sustainable investments. Recent Nasdaq initiatives reflecting and strengthening this include Nasdaq’s ESG Data Portal for issuers and investors; one of the world’s most active markets for sustainable debt instruments; and the Nasdaq ESG Reporting Guide for issuers – which initially was launched in 2017 in the Nordic and Baltic markets and now has been updated and expanded to serve public and private companies globally.

Nasdaq continues to serve as a sustainability advocate and partner to its wide range of corporate, technology and trading clients, and also maintains a long-standing commitment to industry associations and other groups committed to advancing corporate sustainability including the World Federation of Exchanges, the Task Force on Climate-related Disclosures, The United Nations Sustainable Stock Exchanges Initiative, and the UN Global Compact.

Source: Nasdaq