ETF Securities launches the world’s largest Exchange Traded Currency Platform
London, 04/11/2009, ETF Securities (ETFS), the global pioneer in Exchange Traded Commodities (Commodity ETCs) and 3rd generation Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) is planning to launch the world’s largest and Europe’s first Exchange Traded Currency (Currency ETCs) platform with trading expected to begin next week. Currencies are the most liquid asset class with over $3.2 trillion of trading each day yet it is one of the last asset classes to be packaged in the form of an exchange traded product. ETF Securities is a pioneer of ETCs having launched the world’s first Commodity ETC platform in Europe between 2003 and 2006 and which now has accumulated over $15 billion in assets and recent trading of approximately $1.4 billion per week.
Initially, 18 Currency ETCs will be listed on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) which will track recently launched MSFX Currency Indices^SM. The initial Currency ETCs provide long or short passive exposure to G10 currencies versus the US Dollar and include AUD, CAD, CHF, EUR, GBP, NOK, NZK, SEK and YEN. The ETCs also provide exposure to local interest rates in addition to FX movements between the relevant Currency and US Dollars. The new Currency ETCs will be fully collateralised in order to mitigate counter-party risk and will be listed in the ETC segment of the LSE.
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Introducing collateralised currency securities (updated)
by Izabella Kaminska
FT Alphaville
… The latest offer of this nature springs from ETF Securities, an exchange-traded fund issuer, which on Thursday launched the “world’s largest exchange traded currency platform” and Europe’s first…
A good opportunity to play the carry-trade, right?
We’ve had a go at reading the 150-page prospectus to determine just what the products are about. In quick conclusion, the ETCs appear to be another fine example of how exchange-traded products are mutating from their transparent replication-based beginnings into ever more complex instruments.
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