The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has launched two RBS Market Access Currency Hedged ETFs on NYSE Euronext’s Amsterdam market. These new currency hedged ETFs enable investors to invest internationally and hedge currency exposure in one trade, without having to monitor and maintain a currency hedge.
The new ETFs, which were created by RBS to provide Euro hedged exposure to the major benchmark indices S&P 500 and TOPIX, are the RBS Market Access S&P 500 EUR Hedged Index ETF, and the RBS Market Access TOPIX EUR Hedged Index ETF.
Each currency hedged index has been designed to replicate the returns to an investor whose home currency is Euro and has an exposure to the corresponding reference index denominated in its local currency (foreign currency for the investor) and hedges his currency risk using one month forward FX contracts.
Jean-Paul van Oudheusden, Managing Director for Equities & Structured Retail in Benelux, says: “With both the US dollar and the Japanese Yen currently depreciating, these RBS ETFs offer a cost efficient way of investing in the US or Japan with limited currency exposure. The new funds enlarge the list of RBS Market Access ETFs that comprise commodity related and emerging market ETFs. These ETFs are UCITS III compliant sub-funds of RBS Market Access."
Pedro Fernandes, European Head of ETPs at NYSE Euronext, says: “We’re delighted to welcome the new RBS Market Access ETFs to our Amsterdam market,” said “The launch of these new ETFs provides new investment opportunities to the growing number of both institutional and retail investors”. He added: “With the 544 products listed on the European market, NYSE Euronext meets the diverse and growing demand for ETFs in Europe”.
NYSE Euronext is one of the leading venues for Exchange Traded Funds. The ETF segment continues to grow and is increasingly successful on the European and US NYSE Euronext markets. There are now a total of 544 ETFs listed on the European markets of NYSE Euronext, registering an Average Daily Turnover (ADT) of EUR473.2 million in Q1 of 2011, an increase of 36.6% compared with the daily average of EUR346.4 million in the same period last year. ETFs are also very popular in the Dutch market. The ETF market in the Netherlands has grown with 29% in 2010. Currently there are 115 ETFs listed in Amsterdam with total assets under management (AUM) of approximately EUR 56 billion.
ETFs or Trackers are open-end investment funds listed on a stock exchange and tradable in the same way as an individual security. An ETF closely follows or tracks a particular benchmark index, seeking to replicate the performance of the index and offering flexible, low-cost exposure to entire markets or market segments in just one easy transaction. They also combine the simplicity of equities with the diversified risk of investment funds. A further benefit is the low level of management fees associated with this type of passive investment.
