Reminder: Bloomberg Barclays fixed income benchmarks rebranded as the “Bloomberg Indices”
September 8, 2021
A reminder
Bloomberg Barclays fixed income benchmarks rebranded as the “Bloomberg Indices” on August 24. Sponsors will see the change in their 3rd quarter investment reviews. Most sponsors will recognize this branding change via the Bloomberg US Aggregate Bond Index.
A little history
Among the most used fixed income benchmarks, the “Agg” has undergone a bunch of branding changes. Its lineage can be traced to 1973 and the firm Kuhn, Loeb & Co. However, its current format (including intermediate-term corporate, government, and mortgage issues) came about in 1986 as the Lehman Brothers Aggregate Bond Index, or “L-Bag” for those who liked to sound like they were in the know.
Following Lehman Brothers’ 2008 implosion, Barclays Plc purchased Lehman’s capital markets business and rebranded the index as the Barclays Capital Aggregate Bond Index. The benchmark’s subsequent name change to the Barclays Capital US Aggregate Bond Index helped differentiate it from the firm’s Global Aggregate Bond Index.
In 2016, Bloomberg bought Barclays’ index business and the agreement stipulated a co-branding period of five years. This yielded the rather unwieldy Bloomberg Barclays US Aggregate Bond Index.
That brings us to 2021 and today’s change to the Bloomberg US Aggregate Bond Index.
A trip down memory lane, yes, but history nearly always enhances perspective on the present. Also, if you’ve made it this far, you’re our kind of people.
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