XENIX ESG Index Investing Seminar 2024 in Helsinki

XENIX ESG Index Investing Seminar 2024 in Helsinki Henrik Husman, President of Nasdaq Helsinki and Head of European Cash Equities - ETPs at Nasdaq Nordics, welcomed the guests at the historic Pörssitalo in Helsinki together with Lotta Westerlund and Aleksi Härmä. Jonathan Aalto from Seligson & Co opened the seminar. Using data series from 2003 to 2023, he showed how difficult it can be to select the appropriate benchmark (such as for Finnish equities) and the corresponding funds (whether active or passive). Seligson & Co has managed Finland's only ETF, the SLG OMXH25, with the top 25 blue chips since 2002, but has also managed the Finland Index Fund since 1998, one of the oldest trackers in Europe, which tracks the top 40 shares based on the OMX Sustainability Finland Index. Perttu Hytönen, CAIA and Sakari Jääskeläinen (both from LähiTapiola) presented best practice examples for indexed ESG portfolios in a panel with Claus Hecher from BNP Paribas AM. Perttu's equity team manages two PAB tracker funds for European and North American equities. LähiTapiola uses several sustainability filters and even publishes its current exclusion list for international stocks online for all its clients. Sakari explained that Finnish institutional investors expect reports on the carbon footprint and impact of their portfolios. Claus Hecher explained that BNP only launches ESG ETFs, but with different sustainability filters such as the minimum tracking error approach for equities and fossil-free indices for corporate bonds. He believes that many ETF clients will gravitate towards portfolios with a low carbon footprint, even if they are not technically Paris-compliant. Many thanks to all speakers and panelists: Jonathan Aalto, Sakari Jääskeläinen, Perttu Hytönen, Claus Hecher and Helmut Kotschwar. Special thanks go to Lotta Westerlund, Helena Wedin, Maarit Bystedt, Aleksi Härmä and Janne Salminen (Helsinki Fintech Farm).