Markit has launched the Markit iBoxx USD Emerging Markets Sovereigns family of benchmark and tradable indices referencing US dollar-denominated emerging market debt.

The index family has been introduced in response to increased investor interest in emerging market debt and complements Markit’s GEMX index, launched in 2008, which tracks the performance of emerging market sovereign debt denominated in local currency. The company's fixed income emerging market indices use multiple pricing sources, helping to ensure they are independent, objective and transparent.

The index family includes a liquid tradable index which will be used as the basis for index-linked tradable products such as exchange traded funds (ETFs). The benchmark index comprises 37 emerging market countries and 190 bonds, and is rebalanced monthly. The tradable index comprises 20 countries and 36 bonds which are selected quarterly from the benchmark index based on the total amount outstanding for each country in the benchmark index and the latest quarterly bond trading volumes.

“One of our priorities was to create an independent benchmark for emerging market debt and a corresponding highly liquid index with multi contributor pricing that could be used as the basis for tradable products," says Stephan Flagel, managing director and head of indices at Markit. "The new Markit iBoxx USD Emerging Markets Sovereigns index family complements our existing indices and positions Markit as a leading emerging market index provider.”