Barclays Global Investors plans to develop an ETF that screens out companies that are strongly connected to genocide.
The company announced today that it plans to use a reputable third-party index provider to identify companies around the world that they believe are strongly connected to genocide. Those companies would be screened out of an established, broad-based international benchmark.
BGI said that its iShares Genocide-Free ETF would be subject to regulatory approval and it does not have a specific timetable yet for developing the new fund.
"We are committed to providing individual investors, their financial advisors and institutional investors with the investment choices they want," said Noel Archard, head of iShares product research and development at BGI. "We believe there is investor interest in genocide-free investing, and that belief was reinforced through recent conversations with Investors Against Genocide, among others. As a result, we intend to develop an extension of our iShares socially responsible ETF offering with an iShares genocide-free ETF. We believe that creating this new fund could provide investors with an additional reputable socially responsible iShares ETF and address investor concerns on this issue."
BGI is the world's largest provider of ETFs. BGI has more than 2,900 institutional clients and US$1.7 trillion of assets under management as of June 30.