Lehman Brothers is exploring the possibility of coming out with bank loan and hedge fund indexes, according to Steve Berkley, managing director and global head of fixed-income indices in New York. The firm is also considering adding, floating-rate asset-backed securities and commodities indices, as part of a broader effort to maintain what he said is the firm's dominant position in the market for fixed-income indices. The firm's Aggregate Bond Index is used by about 90% of core U.S. fixed-income investors, he said.
Berkley declined to specify what types of securities would comprise the hedge fund index or when it may come out because he said Lehman has not made a decision on whether to actually roll out such a product. But one characteristic of securities in all of the firm's indices is investors must be able to hedge the constituents, he pointed out.
Still, he noted the firm only recently began investigating and expects to further detail the make-up of any potential index in about a month.