Fixed Income Benchmarks

Understanding fixed income benchmarks is essential for investment professionals seeking to optimize portfolio performance and align investment strategies with market standards. Leveraging a robust benchmark enables organizations to compare key statistics between relevant peer-groups, facilitating informed decision-making and strategic alignment. 

What are Fixed Income Benchmarks?  

Fixed income benchmarks serve as reference points for evaluating the performance of fixed income securities and portfolios. These benchmarks provide a standard against which investment managers can measure their investment strategies and assess relative performance. 

Importance of Benchmarks for Investment Portfolios:  

Benchmarks for investment portfolios play a crucial role in guiding investment decisions, monitoring portfolio performance, and communicating investment objectives to stakeholders. By comparing portfolio returns against relevant benchmarks, investors can gauge the effectiveness of their investment strategies and identify areas for improvement. We recommend reading Investopedia’s explanation of how investment benchmarks can be used. 

Common Fixed Income Benchmarks: 

• Bloomberg Barclays U.S. Aggregate Bond Index: A widely used benchmark for measuring the performance of the U.S. investment-grade bond market.  
• FTSE Russell Global Aggregate Bond Index: A global benchmark that includes fixed income securities from multiple regions and currencies.  
• ICE BofA Merrill Lynch U.S. Treasury Index: Focuses exclusively on U.S. Treasury securities, providing insight into the performance of government debt.  
• J.P. Morgan Emerging Markets Bond Index: Tracks the performance of fixed income securities issued by emerging market governments and corporations. 

How Clearwater Analytics Helps:  

Clearwater Insights provides an apples-to-apples benchmark for investment portfolios, enabling clients to assess the performance of their portfolios as well as strategy from money managers compared to other clients with similar characteristics to gain a better understanding of what top performers are doing and how to capture additional yield. 

With a robust dataset of over $7 in assets to offer comprehensive insights into organizational portfolio’s performance, Clearwater Insights allows organizations to compare key statistics between the most relevant peer-groups such as those who have similar investment policies or are in their industry.  

Eliminate the need for time-consuming data analysis as we deliver meaningful trends, empowering you to make informed decisions that distinguish you from the rest. Experience a new era of precision and efficiency with Clearwater Insights.  

Key Benefits to Clearwater Insights: 

• Increased Transparency on Benchmarking Comparisons: Flexible customization of framework facilitates creation of personalized benchmarks to understand peer performance 
• Secured and Reconciled Dataset: Clearwater’s $7+ trillion in assets are validated daily and encrypted to be only viewable to by the specific client 
• Engage with Clearwater’s Network: Leverage Clearwater’s network to understand qualitative analysis and best practices – ensuring your organization is aligned to industry standards 

• Drive Actionable Insights: Boost confidence in your money managers’ performance by comparing their strategy against relevant benchmarks. 

Download our 2023 Corporate Investment Insights Report to learn the types of data we can benchmark and the impact it has on the industry. 

Learn More:  

Want to see how your organization can use Clearwater Insights for apples-to-apples peer comparison across fixed income and alternative assets? Schedule a consultation with an expert today.