Credit Suisse today introduced a performance benchmark exclusively devoted to U.S. dollar-denominated fixed income issues from Latin America, Eastern Europe and Asia.

The new index, the Credit Suisse Emerging Market Corporate Bond Index, currently includes the US denominated corporate bonds of 366 issuers with a market value of nearly US$275 billion. It is designed to meet the increasing demand among institutional investors globally for emerging market corporate bonds as long-term credit quality and trading performance have continued to strengthen.

“The growth of corporate bond issuance in emerging markets creates the need to expand performance monitoring beyond the sovereign bond market,” said Damien Wood, the head of Credit Suisse’s Asia credit research team, in a news release.

“Our clients are increasingly pursuing opportunities in emerging markets worldwide. Based on discussions with our clients, we expect to see great interest in a global index that enables investors to compare regions to one another,” said Jamie Nicholson-Leener, head of Latin America corporate credit research at Credit Suisse.