CHICAGO, Oct. 3, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- CME Group, the world's leading and most diverse derivatives marketplace, today announced it will launch E-mini S&P 500 ESG Index futures, a new risk management tool that aligns with environmental, social and governance (ESG) values. The new futures contracts will be available for trading on Nov. 18, 2019, pending regulatory review.

"A growing number of institutional investors and asset managers have incorporated sustainable investing objectives into their strategies," said Tim McCourt, CME Group Global Head of Equity Index and Alternative Investment Products. "Our new futures contracts will allow market participants to gain price exposure to an index that closely tracks the performance of the S&P 500, while adhering to ESG principles. This is another example of how CME Group is not only meeting the changing risk management needs of our customers in an evolving global marketplace, but also offering choices that allow for the alignment of investment decisions with personal or institutional values."

"We're pleased that CME Group has developed E-mini S&P 500 ESG Index futures linked to our S&P 500 ESG Index. Investors are no longer simply viewing ESG indices and benchmarks as niche market tools, but are increasingly integrating ESG metrics to manage their core portfolios. We believe demand for innovative ESG index-based products, especially in the U.S. and Europe, will continue to grow and become more mainstream as market participants seek to better align their sustainability and investment goals," said Reid Steadman, Global Head of ESG Indices at S&P Dow Jones Indices.

The S&P 500 ESG Index is a broad-based, market-cap-weighted index that is designed to measure the performance of securities meeting sustainability criteria, while maintaining similar overall industry group weights as the S&P 500.

These new contracts will complement CME Group's suite of equity index futures and options contracts, including its existing E-mini S&P 500 futures and options and Micro E-mini S&P 500 futures.

E-mini S&P 500 ESG Index futures will be cash-settled and will be subject to the rules and regulations of CME. For more information visit cmegroup.com/esgfutures.

As the world's leading and most diverse derivatives marketplace, CME Group (www.cmegroup.com) enables clients to trade futures, options, cash and OTC markets, optimize portfolios, and analyze data – empowering market participants worldwide to efficiently manage risk and capture opportunities. CME Group exchanges offer the widest range of global benchmark products across all major asset classes based on interest rates, equity indexes, foreign exchange, energy, agricultural products and metals. The company offers futures and options on futures trading through the CME Globex® platform, fixed income trading via BrokerTec and foreign exchange trading on the EBS platform. In addition, it operates one of the world's leading central counterparty clearing providers, CME Clearing. With a range of pre- and post-trade products and services underpinning the entire lifecycle of a trade, CME Group also offers optimization and reconciliation services through TriOptima, and trade processing services through Traiana.

CME Group, the Globe logo, CME, Chicago Mercantile Exchange, Globex, and, E-mini are trademarks of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. CBOT and Chicago Board of Trade are trademarks of Board of Trade of the City of Chicago, Inc. NYMEX, New York Mercantile Exchange and ClearPort are trademarks of New York Mercantile Exchange, Inc. COMEX is a trademark of Commodity Exchange, Inc. BrokerTec, EBS, TriOptima, and Traiana are trademarks of BrokerTec Europe LTD, EBS Group LTD, TriOptima AB, and Traiana, Inc., respectively. Dow Jones, Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P 500 and S&P are service and/or trademarks of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC, Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and S&P/Dow Jones Indices LLC, as the case may be, and have been licensed for use by Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

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SOURCE CME Group