About a-team Marketing Services
The knowledge platform for the financial technology industry
The knowledge platform for the financial technology industry

A-Team Insight Blogs

Bloomberg Plans Addition of Chinese Securities to Global Aggregate Indices

Subscribe to our newsletter

Bloomberg intends to add Chinese RMB-denominated government and policy bank securities to the Bloomberg Barclays Global Aggregate Index. The addition of the securities will be phased in over a 20-month period starting in April 2019 and subject to planned operational enhancements being implemented by the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) and Ministry of Finance.

When fully accounted for in the Global Aggregate Index, local currency Chinese bonds will be the fourth largest currency component following the US dollar, euro and Japanese yen. Using data as of January 31, 2018, the index would include 386 Chinese securities and represent 5.49% of a $53.73 trillion index.

Michael Bloomberg, founder of Bloomberg and chair of the working g on US RMB trading and clearing, says: “This announcement recognises China’s continued efforts over recent years to enhance access to the world’s third-largest bond market. It is a testament to China’s commitment to financial reform and the pace of change in its bond market. It is also another step towards for China’s integration with global financial markets.”

In order to be considered for inclusion in the Global Aggregate Index, a local currency debt market must be classified as investment grade and its currency must be freely tradable, convertible, hedgeable, and free of capital controls. Ongoing enhancements by the PBoC have resulted in RMB-denominated securities meeting these absolute index rules.

Additional enhancements are required prior to the planned inclusion date to increase investor confidence and improve market accessibility. Among these are: the implementation of delivery versus payment settlement; ability to allocate block trades across portfolios; and clarification on tax collection policies. Should progress on these enhancements be delayed, China’s inclusion in the Global Aggregate Index and other Bloomberg Barclays Indices may also be delayed.

In addition to the Global Aggregate Index, Chinese RMB-denominated debt will be eligible for inclusion in the Bloomberg Barclays Global Treasury and EM Local Currency Government Indices starting April 2019. Bloomberg will also create ex-China versions of the indices for index users that want to track benchmarks that exclude China. The company will also create customised capped versions of the indices for investors looking to limit exposure to China.

Subscribe to our newsletter

Related content

WEBINAR

Upcoming Webinar: Unlocking value: Harnessing modern data platforms for data integration, advanced investment analytics, visualisation and reporting

4 September 2025 10:00am ET | 3:00pm London | 4:00pm CET Duration: 50 Minutes Modern data platforms are bringing efficiencies, scalability and powerful new capabilities to institutions and their data pipelines. They are enabling the use of new automation and analytical technologies that are also helping firms to derive more value from their data and...

BLOG

LDA Technologies Launches Low-Jitter Multicast Distribution System for Fairer Market Data Access

LDA Technologies, provider of ultra-low latency, networking and FPGA technology, has launched a new multicast distribution system designed to address longstanding fairness issues in market data delivery for electronic trading. The system synchronises exchange customer ports to within 50 picoseconds, an improvement of 98% over conventional Layer 1 switches, enabling exchanges to distribute data uniformly...

EVENT

AI in Capital Markets Summit London

The AI in Capital Markets Summit will explore current and emerging trends in AI, the potential of Generative AI and LLMs and how AI can be applied for efficiencies and business value across a number of use cases, in the front and back office of financial institutions. The agenda will explore the risks and challenges of adopting AI and the foundational technologies and data management capabilities that underpin successful deployment.

GUIDE

Pricing and Valuations

This special report accompanies a webinar we held a webinar on the popular topic of Pricing and Valuations, discussing issues such as transparency of pricing and how to ensure data quality. You can register here to get immediate access to the Special Report.