BofA Merrill Lynch Global Research has launched four emerging markets local currency bond indices, designed to track the performance of local currency non-sovereign emerging markets fixed rate debt.

“Development of these new indices has been driven by the growth of interest in this market segment following the rapid increase in local currency sovereign and external corporate debt markets,” Bank of America said.

The four new indices are:

The BofA Merrill Lynch Broad Local Emerging Markets Non-sovereign Index (ticker: LCCB) - The broadest measure of the local currency emerging markets non-sovereign debt markets. Constituents are capitalization-weighted, with no caps on country or issuer exposures.

The BofA Merrill Lynch Diversified Broad Local Emerging Markets Non-sovereign Index (ticker: LCCD) - A more liquid, diversified version of LCCB, although there are larger minimum bond sizes as well as caps on country and issuer exposures.

The BofA Merrill Lynch Local Emerging Markets Non-sovereign Index (ticker: LOCM) – The same as LCCB but excludes Sukuks (Islamic finance certificates similar to bonds). Constituents are capitalization-weighted, with no caps on country or issuer exposures.

The BofA Merrill Lynch Diversified Local Emerging Markets Non-sovereign Index (ticker: LOCL) – A more liquid, diversified version of LOCM. There are larger minimum bond sizes in addition to caps on country and issuer exposures.

All four indices focus solely on securities that settle on Euroclear, the portion of the market that is most readily accessible to offshore investors.