FTSE Russell Index Ideas

In this episode of FTSE Russell Index Ideas, Abhi Desai, Senior Analyst, Fixed Income Custom Solutions at FTSE Russell and Olivier Genin, Deputy Head Investment and Product Strategy, Head of Fixed Income and Responsible Investing Product Strategy, Amundi ETF and Indexing, discuss the design and use cases of FTSE GDP-Weighted World Government Bond index (WGBI), in which constituent country weights are determined by economic footprint, rather than the market value of debt in issue. 

In this episode of FTSE Russell Index Ideas, Paul Clarke, head of FX benchmark product management at FTSE Russell, talks about the unique role played by benchmarks in the global currency markets. He describes the design features, use cases and oversight of the WMR FX benchmarks, which provide an objective, reliable and representative snapshot of FX rates across global markets.

In this episode of FTSE Russell Index Ideas, Stephanie Maier, global head of sustainable at FTSE Russell and Thomas Bremner Bligaard, Managing Director and co-founder of Planetrics, talk about climate scenarios following the fracturing of the global consensus on 2050 net-zero targets. They discuss how best to price climate risk and integrate transition and physical risk into a combined portfolio view.

In this episode of FTSE Russell Index Ideas, Lee Clements, director of applied sustainable investment research at FTSE Russell, discusses the energy shock triggered by the 2026 Iran war, its likely impact on economies and the energy transition and how the shock has affected the risk and return characteristics of different FTSE Russell sustainable indices.

In this episode of FTSE Russell Index Ideas, Sergiy Lesyk, director of research and analytics at FTSE Russell, looks at one of the classic equity market factors—value. He explains why value investors have faced a tough time in recent years and how definitions of value have also been questioned. Lesyk discusses FTSE Russell’s approach to building value portfolios and how best to remove off-target exposures.

In this episode of FTSE Russell Index Ideas, Matt Monach, senior manager, research at FTSE Russell, explains the design and use cases of the FTSE Real Assets Industry Select Equity Index Series (FTSE RAISE), a new index family designed to help investors diversify away from the AI boom and gain exposure to companies whose value is rooted in real, hard, economically critical assets. 

In this episode of FTSE Russell Index Ideas, Robin Marshall, director of fixed income research at FTSE Russell, and Gary Tan, FX and rates derivatives manager at SGX, discuss the FTSE Asia Pacific Liquid Government Bond Index Series and its role as the reference benchmark for new dollar-based futures contracts on the Singapore Exchange.

In this episode of FTSE Russell Index Ideas, Catherine Yoshimoto, director of product management at FTSE Russell, talks about the design and use cases of the new Russell 9000 Global index, which builds on the 40-year history of the Russell index series to bring together US, developed ex-US and emerging markets stocks in a single benchmark.

In this episode of FTSE Russell Index Ideas, Joshua Gorelik, director of fixed income quantitative research at FTSE Russell, and Alex Prince, executive director of interest rate derivatives at the Montréal Exchange (TMX), talk about the FTSE Canada Bank Credit Spread Index Series and its role as an underlying for TMX’s FTSE Canada Bank Credit Index Futures (BCS), launched in April 2026.

In this episode of FTSE Russell Index Ideas, Jared Butters, sustainable investment product manager at FTSE Russell, talks about the key factors driving the rising global demand for sustainable infrastructure. He goes on to talk about FTSE Russell’s green infrastructure index ranges, their design and use cases and our collaboration with external data partners.

In this episode of FTSE Russell Index Ideas, Jack Fischer, US fixed income, currency and commodity product lead at FTSE Russell, talks about the recent revival of investor interest in inflation-linked bonds and explains how FTSE Russell is catering to this demand via a range of inflation-linked indices.

In this episode of FTSE Russell Index Ideas, Hannah Layman, head of sustainable index research and design at FTSE Russell, describes how she uses FTSE Russell’s “weight explainer” tool to help clients understand and communicate the drivers of different weight positions, especially in indices for sustainable investment.

In this episode of FTSE Russell Index Ideas, Wanming Du, director of index policy in the Asia-Pacific region for FTSE Russell, explains why we are reclassifying Vietnam from a frontier market to an emerging market and what this means for the country’s inclusion in flagship FTSE Russell equity benchmarks.

In this episode of Index Ideas, Arne Noack, Head of Equity and Multi-Asset Indices, Americas, at FTSE Russell, describes our approach to building global equity benchmarks—from country selection to regional and size classifications and current demands from clients for more customised exposures.

In this episode of Index Ideas, Arne Noack, Head of Equity and Multi-Asset Indices, Americas, at FTSE Russell, describes our approach to building global equity benchmarks—from country selection to regional and size classifications and current demands from clients for more customised exposures.

In this episode of FTSE Russell Index Ideas, Ali Zaidi, Head of Real Assets & Alternatives at FTSE Russell and Tyler Johnson, Chief Technology Officer for StepStone Group, talk about the objectives, design and use cases of the new FTSE StepStone Global Private Market Indices.

In this episode of Index Ideas, Stephanie Maier, Global Head of Sustainable at FTSE Russell, discusses the results of FTSE Russell’s 8th Annual Sustainable Investment Asset Owner Survey, released in December 2025. She describes investors’ rising concerns about climate risk and argues that sustainable investment is very much alive and well.

In this episode of FTSE Russell Index Ideas, Andreas Schroeder, head of index design (EMEA) at FTSE Russell talks about the objectives and requirements of an EU Paris-aligned equity index. He explains how FTSE Russell’s researchers choose between different index designs when meeting those requirements.

In this episode of FTSE Russell Index Ideas, Lee Clements, Director of Applied Sustainable Investment Research at FTSE Russell, explains how indices can help guide those investing in the green economy. He describes FTSE Russell’s green revenues data, how it's organised and overseen and how the data feeds into our environmental equity indices.

In this episode of FTSE Russell Index Ideas, Robin Marshall, director of fixed income research at FTSE Russell, talks about the 40-year legacy of the FTSE World Government Bond Index (FTSE WGBI), the global standard for the sovereign debt markets.