Northern Trust Global Investments, the international investment management arm of Chicago-based Northern Trust, has launched a global emerging markets index fund. NT say it is to meet demand from institutional investors seeking to achieve net returns in line with the return on the equity markets of the world’s emerging markets. The fund has been set up as a variable capital company and extends NTGI’s existing range of Dublin-domiciled, UCITS III qualifying, pooled, quantitative funds available to non-US investors. Jason Toussaint, senior quantitative strategist at NTGI, said: “We are seeing increasing demand from investors, some who have not previously allocated assets to emerging markets, for funds that will enable them to do so in a risk-controlled way. Using an index fund can be a highly effective way for many investors to access emerging markets for the first time, and, equally, can be used in conjunction with active investment strategies.” Steven Schoenfeld, chief investment officer of the quantitative management group at NTGI, said: “NTGI and its affiliates have been managing emerging markets index assets since 1998 and we currently have more than $5 billion in emerging markets quantitative assets under management.”