REYKJAVIK, October 31, 2013 - The NASDAQ OMX Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: NDAQ) today announced that NASDAQ OMX Iceland has for the first time listed a fixed income exchange traded fund (ETF) issued by the Icelandic fund management company Landsbref. The new bond ETF, Landsbref - LREAL (LREAL), tracks the NASDAQ OMX Iceland Inflation-linked Benchmark Bonds index (NOMXIREAL).
NOMXIREAL consists of inflation-linked benchmark bonds, which are the most liquid inflation-linked Treasury and Housing Financing Fund bonds. The inflation-linked bond market is an important asset class in Iceland. The total market capitalization of the NOMXIREAL constituents is between ISK 1,000 and 1,100 billion, which is between two and three times the market capitalization of nominal benchmark bonds. LREAL now makes it possible to buy and sell this important asset class in a single transaction.
“NASDAQ OMX Iceland has traditionally had a very strong bond market, so it is with great pleasure that we now welcome the first ever fixed income ETF on our market,” Magnus Hardarson, Vice-President NASDAQ OMX Iceland commented. “I must also congratulate Landsbref for being the first issuer of this product, which undoubtably strengthens the foundation of the Icelandic ETF segment.”
“Landsbref has aimed at a leading role in exchange traded funds on the Icelandic market,” said Sigthor Jonsson, CEO of Landsbref. “The new bond ETF we are now issuing supports our work in this direction, and earlier this fall we issued a new equity ETF. We expect to list further fixed income ETFs in the coming months and thereby further strenghten investor opportunities on the Icelandic fixed income market.”
Landsbankinn will act as a market maker to provide liquidity.
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About Exchange Traded Funds
An Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) issues units that are financial instruments. An ETF usually tracks an index, a commodity or a basket of assets like an index fund, but its units are traded like a stock on an exchange. ETFs are a complement to actively managed funds and provide investors with the possibility to invest in well known indices in the local currency.
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About NASDAQ OMX Group
The inventor of the electronic exchange, The NASDAQ OMX Group, Inc., fuels economies and provides transformative technologies for the entire lifecycle of a trade - from risk management to trade to surveillance to clearing. In the U.S. and Europe, we own and operate 26 markets, 3 clearinghouses and 5 central securities depositories supporting equities, options, fixed income, derivatives, commodities, futures and structured products. Able to process more than 1 million messages per second at sub-55 microsecond speeds with 99.99% uptime, our technology drives more than 70 marketplaces in 50 developed and emerging countries into the future, powering 1 in 10 of the world’s securities transactions. Our award-winning data products and worldwide indexes are the benchmarks in the financial industry. Home to approximately 3,300 listed companies worth more than $6 trillion in market cap whose innovations shape our world, we give the ideas of tomorrow access to capital today. Welcome to where the world takes a big leap forward, daily. Welcome to the NASDAQ OMX Century. To learn more, visit www.nasdaqomx.com. Follow us on Facebook (www.facebook.com/NASDAQ) and Twitter (www.twitter.com/nasdaqomx). (Symbol: NDAQ and member of S&P 500)
MEDIA RELATIONS CONTACTS:
NASDAQ OMX ICELAND:
Kristin Johannsdottir
+354 525 2844
KRISTIN.JOHANNSDOTTIR@NASDAQOMX.COM
LANDSBREF:
Sigthor Jonsson
+354 410 2511
SIGTHOR.JONSSON@LANDSBREF.IS
