TASE To Launch All-Bond - A Series Of New Bond Indices

• The All-Bond Index Series Will Build on the “All Bonds" Index
• The All-Bond Indices will be Methodically Calculated, in Real Time
• Under the new methodology, the “All Bonds" and the “CPI-Linked Bonds" indices will be upgraded, two new All-Bond indices will be launched - “All Bond Shekel" and “All-Bond Floating", and the calculation of 6 end-of-day bond indices will be discontinued.

TASE publishes a drat for public comments, concerning the launch of a series of new bond indices - All-Bond.

The Tel-Bond family has come a long way since the launch of the first Tel-Bond index, Tel-Bond 20, in February 2007. With 29 indices and total investments of NIS 37 billion, Tel-Bond family is the leading index segment in Israel.

The Tel-Bond series comprises bonds issued by corporations and has generally conservative features, such as credit rating, weight cap per issuer and more. The TASE staff believe that, alongside the existing Tel-Bond indices, there is also room for broader indices that comprise both government bonds and bonds issued as financial instruments, such as issued deposits. The minimum market cap criterion will be identical to that of the Tel-Bond indices: minimum market cap of NIS 100 million for bonds included in the index and NIS 150 million for new bonds. On the launch date, the minimum market cap criterion for all bonds will be NIS 100 million.

In addition, the universe will only contain bonds with a local credit rating of at least (BBB-).

“All Bonds" index as a basis for the development of the All-Bond series

The existing “All Bonds" index comprises all of the bonds that are listed on TASE and is a long-standing and popular benchmark index in Israel. The index was launched in January 1984 alongside 7 other indices. However, those indices are solely end-of-day benchmark indices without threshold criteria and are not suited for tracking financial products.

An upgraded All Bonds index that is adapted to tracking financial products meets a crucial need of the capital market and opens up investment options in one of Israel's most prominent, lucrative and sought-after indices.

TASE will launch a new series of All-Bond indices that will be calculated methodically and in real time - “All-Bond General", superseding the All Bonds index and “All-Bond CPI Linked", superseding the CPI-Linked Bonds index. Two more new indices will be launched - “All-Bond Shekel", comprising fixed-coupon unlinked government and corporate bonds, and “All-Bond floating", comprising variable-coupon unlinked government and corporate bonds.

Additionally, pursuant to the new methodology, the calculation of 6 end-of-day indices will be discontinued.

The new indices will be launched on May 23, 2021 (the date of the semi-annual update of the bond indices in May). The record date for determining the composition of the index will be the end of trading on April 29, 2021.

Appendix

Changes to the Existing Indices and Launch of New Indices

Proposed changes:

​Principal All-Bond Indices Data (NIS, in billions)

[1]    The index will only comprise bonds that meet the rating and market cap criteria, as set out in the proposed resolution.