The latest in funds and investments across Europe, Middle East and Africa.

BlackRock
BlackRock has launched a new exchange-traded fund (ETF), integrating environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors. Dutch insurance company a.s.r. is the seed investor of the fund.

The new iShares JP Morgan ESG $ EM Bond UCITS ETF (EMES) will track the JP Morgan ESG EMBI Global Diversified Index, one of the JESG EMD suite of indices launched by JP Morgan in collaboration with BlackRock in April 2018. 

This fund complements a group of four actively-managed UCITS ESG EMD funds that were launched in August this year. BlackRock’s iShares’ global sustainable ETF range already includes 27 iShares funds.

Goldman Sachs 
Goldman Sachs’ online retail market savings account was launched in the UK yesterday, pitching at mass-affluent clients.  This a shift in focus for a US-based firm normally associated with high-rolling investment banking and wealth management for the ultra-rich.

Called Marcus by Goldman Sachs®, the new online bank intends to offer savers a “consistently competitive interest rate”, which starts today at 1.50 per cent AER, the Wall Street-listed firm said yesterday. Marcus is named after one of the original founders of Goldman Sachs, Marcus Goldman.

The firm describes the service as “transparent, secure, and easy-to-use”. UK residents can put in as little as £1.0 ($1.31) to £250,000, and withdraw money when they want free of charges. The service has been running in the US since 2016.

“Over the last decade savers have been on the wrong end of low interest rates. We’ve spoken in-depth to people across the country and there is a real disillusionment about savings – while most UK adults are diligently trying to save every month, some do not even have a savings account, with low interest rates and complexity being put to blame,” said Des McDaid, managing director at Marcus by Goldman Sachs.