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Barclays Tweaks Benchmark Fixed Income Indices

Barclays announced today that commercial mortgage backed securities issued and backed by US agencies will become eligible for its US aggregate and global aggregate indicies as of June 30, 2014.

The bank will also launch a standalone US Agency benchmark early in 2014, prior to US Aggregate Index inclusion.

The announement is part of several changes Barclays will maket to its benchmark fixed income indices over 2014.

The bank said in a press release today that securities issued under rule 144A without registration rights will not be added to the US Aggregate Index but a new stanard US Aggregate 144A benchmark will be launched in 2014.

Another 2014 change will be to Barclays' US MBS Index. The  bank said that the minimum amount outstanding for US MBS Index constituents will be raised to $1 billion from the current $250 million as of March 31, 2014.

The Barclays Index group also plans to review the vurrent Index pricing methodology of fixed-rate MBS and will consider enhancements that can be implement to “better reflect the variability of MBS pool characteristics present withing the existing index structure.”

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