UBS Investment Bank has rolled out a series of investment products aligned to the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which will allocate a pre-defined portion of proceeds as philanthropic contributions to its dedicated philanthropic UBS Optimus Foundation.

'As the world's largest wealth manager and a recognized sustainability leader we are always looking to combine our expertise and range of products and services to support our clients' financial, sustainable and philanthropic goals,' said Michael Nelskyla (pictured), head of investor solutions Americas, UBS Investment Bank. 'This new series of products represents an industry first that allows our clients to pursue all three goals through a single investment.'

The new products, will be linked to a number of undisclosed sustainability and impact screened indices based on various themes directed at specific investor groups. Among the themes will be a global sustainability index, a social equality-based LGBTQ investment index, and an index linked to the environment and clean energy, according to UBS.

The UBS Optimus Foundation will leverage its extensive partner network to identify and support suitable SDG-aligned programs, and will also monitor each program's progress and provide 'a rigorous evaluation of the impact achieved'.

The initiative was announced at a major media event streamed simultaneously over three UBS locations in Zurich, London and New York, where UBS highlighted its commitment to and progress in supporting the UN SDGs through a growing catalogue of sustainable and impact investing products across four business divisions.

The event coincided with the announcement by the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI) - the most widely recognized sustainability index - confirming UBS as the Diversified Financials Group Industry Leader for the third year running.

The launch comes almost two years after the Swiss bank licensed the Dow Jones Sustainability Europe Diversified High Beta High Dividend Index - an index tracking high income liquid stocks with high historical beta within the Dow Jones Sustainability Europe Diversified Index,to develop a range of investment products. The new which is fully tradable has been designed to measure and will be used by UBS as the underlying of index-linked products.

Over the last couple of years, a number of investment banks have entered this segment including JP Morgan (JP Morgan Ethos Investments), Commerzbank (Solactive Global Ethical Low Volatility AR EUR Index), Deutsche Bank (partnership with Arabesque); BNP Paribas (FTSE low carbon series), and Natixis (Euronext Climate Orientation Priority 50 Equal Weight Excess Return Index).

The launch comes after Societe Generale's (SG) released a structured note linked to the Finvex Ethical Efficient Europe 30 Price index, the French bank's first positive impact finance product for retail investors in Italy.

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