MBNE combines the benefits of revenue from municipal bonds that is exempt from federal taxation with active management and ESG considerations.

The SPDR Nuveen Municipal Bond ESG ETF was launched today by State Street Global Advisors, the asset management division of State Street Corporation (NYSE: STT) (MBNE). MBNE is actively managed and sub-advised by Nuveen, a recognised leader in the municipal bond market. It is designed to invest in municipal securities from issuers that are leaders in their sector in terms of delivering environmental, social, and governance (ESG) outcomes or whose proceeds are used to fund positive environmental or social projects.

"The prospect of higher taxes, combined with increased uncertainty about future interest rate hikes, has increased demand for actively managed municipal bond ETFs,"

said Brie Williams, head of practise management at State Street Global Advisors.

"At the same time that demand for municipal bond exposure is increasing, investors are increasingly looking for ESG exposure outside of equities, which is why we're excited about the expansion of our SPDR ETF municipal bond lineup and the partnership we've formed with Nuveen to launch MBNE."

Tim Ryan, Shawn O'Leary, and David Blair will use Nuveen's proprietary ESG Municipal Bond Scoring Tool to select bonds from issuers that are leaders in environmental stewardship, strong governance, and positive social outcomes. They have over seven decades of combined experience investing in municipal bonds. The strategy will primarily consist of investment-grade, tax-exempt municipal securities issued by US municipalities with maturities ranging from 2 to 17 years. Nuveen employs a value-oriented strategy to identify potential municipal bonds for investment, which is designed to identify higher-yielding and undervalued municipal bonds with above-average total return potential.

"As investors become more familiar with ESG-integrated strategies, Nuveen has developed a proprietary framework designed to identify municipal bond issuers that support income generation for investors while also achieving positive ESG outcomes in their communities,"

Tim Ryan, municipal portfolio manager at Nuveen, said.

"The fund is also intended to provide exposure to bonds whose proceeds are used to fund positive environmental or social projects that address critical issues such as climate change, environmental degradation, inequality, poverty, and justice, and are aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals."

MBNE's investment adviser is SSGA Funds Management, Inc., and its investment sub-adviser is Nuveen Asset Management, LLC.

Visit www.ssga.com/etfs for more information on the SPDR Nuveen Municipal Bond ESG ETF.

Source: State Street news