As the Optiver Group, we have always been committed to improving the market, it is at the heart of everything we do. We believe that financial markets should reflect society’s values, which is why we are increasingly focused on market making ESG products.

We are proud that one of our subsidiaries, Amsterdam Derivatives B.V.  a CBOE exchange member will be a lead market maker on the S&P 500 ESG Index Options being launched by CBOE. The S&P 500 ESG Index is designed to provide improved Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) representation while offering a risk and return profile similar to the S&P 500. As a top market maker in traditional SPX index options, we are looking forward to building in products that assist in the transition to a more sustainable economy.

 “Our role as market makers is to provide liquidity which we hope will stimulate the transition to more sustainable financial markets. While we acknowledge the industry still has a lot of work to do and a lot has to change, we are supportive of the ESG movement and we believe the SPX 500 ESG options are a good step in the right direction,” said Rutger Brinkhuis, Optiver Head of Trading. 

S&P 500 ESG Index Exclusion Criteria:

The underlying S&P 500 ESG Index is composed of a subset of the constituents of the S&P 500 Index – companies with specific business activities in tobacco or controversial weapons or disqualifying United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) scores or RobecoSAM ESG scores are removed. Remaining companies are filtered via ESG scores by industry.

Disclaimer
The above should not be deemed a solicitation or recommendation in any way.