Central securities depositories Euroclear Finland and Euroclear Sweden will, for the first time, make actively-managed exchange traded funds available for settlement and custody in their book-entry systems.
Coincidentally, Nordea has also recently launched the region’s first two actively-managed ETFs on the Stockholm and Helsinki exchanges. Depending upon where the two multi-listed ETFs are traded, transactions will settle locally in kronor at Euroclear Sweden or in euros at Euroclear Finland.
The two new ETFs listed by Nordea are Nordea Global Emerging Market Equities UCITS ETF and Nordea Stable Equities UCITS ETF. The price of these ETFs will be determined and provided by a dedicated market-maker throughout the trading day.
Trading in actively-managed ETFs is the same as trading in equities, and therefore both retail and institutional clients will need a book-entry account with either Euroclear Finland or Euroclear Sweden to process these transactions.
Heikki Ylipekkala, head of commercial at Euroclear Finland and Euroclear Sweden, said: “Actively-managed ETFs have established themselves as viable investment choices in countries like the US, where according to ETF experts, actively-managed US-listed ETFs account for around $14 billion of assets under management. It is natural that investors in Finland and Sweden will want to buy into this new asset class and expect Euroclear to service them.”
Jari Kivihuhta, managing director of Nordea Investment Funds, said that the number of actively-managed funds is expected to rise, particularly as demand for equity-like products grows.
“Our mutual funds have been successful during the last few years. We feel very comfortable to launch a new kind of actively managed ETF with Euroclear, and to benefit from their years of fund processing experience.”
