C8 Announce Collaboration with Morningstar to Provide Direct Indexing for Institutions

C8 – Morningstar Indexes_Press Release_Final

LONDON, 05 November 2019 — C8 and Morningstar, Inc. (Nasdaq: MORN), a leading provider of independent investment research, today announced a collaboration to provide innovative ways for asset managers and owners to track and trade in accordance with Morningstar® Indexes, hosted on theC8 platform. With C8, an institution takes full control of their investments by trading the underlying equities themselves, at a lower cost, with their own broker.

With C8’s platform, no longer do Morningstar Indexes need to be packaged into an ETF, structured product, or fund. It is straightforward for asset managers and owners to track their chosen Morningstar Index by trading the underlying equities using C8X, C8’s proprietary execution platform.

C8’s solution is more cost effective than an ETF, structured product, or a fund. Furthermore, the asset manager or owner can take advantage of the flexibility of direct indexing to support their investment process or regulatory requirements. They keep full control of their capital and own the underlying equities, providing full transparency and less liquidity risk.

The C8 platform also provides quantitative trading overlays that asset managers and owners can apply to the Morningstar Index universe. This enables them to benefit from Morningstar’s Indexing capabilities and C8’s unique quantitative pedigree.

“The Morningstar tie-up adds a new dimension to the C8 platform, with their wide range of investor-focused products” says Mattias Eriksson, CEO of C8 Technologies. “In particular, the Morningstar Sustainability Indexes are ideal for our platform offering full transparency of the underlying assets. In addition, we believe that combining these strong and balanced portfolios with our systematic overlays can add real value to asset managers and owners”.

“Morningstar’s collaboration with the C8 platform provides a unique, cost-effective alternative for institutional investors,” said Sanjay Arya, Head of Morningstar Indexes. “We believe that aligning investors with their values and offering index solutions that match their financial goals will lead to a better investor experience.”