Amsterdam, Brussels, Lisbon, Paris - 10 March 2014 – Euronext, a wholly owned subsidiary of IntercontinentalExchange Group (NYSE: ICE), today announced that it is the first exchange to trade ETFs on the NAV Trading Facility. This initiative will open up the ETF market to a broader investor base by offering a regulated on-exchange forward pricing solution for order execution at Net Asset Value (NAV). ABN Amro Basic Funds N.V. is the first firm to benefit from the platform by launching its first ETFs— AABF ETF ES50® and AABF ETF AEX® on February 6th 2014.
The NAV Trading Facility is regulated, transparent and efficient and provides investors with greater accessibility and a simpler process for NAV trading, thanks to the electronic management of order entry, accumulation, execution, clearing and settlement. All orders sent to the exchange are executed once a day at a price based on NAV. All market data related to trades conducted on the NAV Trading Facility is made available to data vendors, financial institutions, and private and institutional investors thereby, contributing to transparency of the overall post-trade activity.
For ETF issuers such as ABN Amro, the NAV Trading Facility assists asset gathering by offering a simple, efficient and secure solution for investors to access ETFs, without having to manage intra-day trading positions and the risk this involves. Thanks to the simpler method of investing, the facility also creates the conditions for a number of saving plans across Europe to include ETFs in their product selection, opening a completely new avenue of growth for ETFs in Europe.
Pedro Fernandes, Head of European Exchange Traded Products for Euronext, said: “We are very proud to be the first exchange to deliver a solution for ETF trading at NAV. The NAV Trading Facility complements intra-day/on-book trading and facilitates further usage of ETFs by investors, thereby supporting the overall development of ETFs in Europe. This initiative demonstrates Euronext’s commitment to understanding the needs of the ETF industry and working with the community to develop new, innovative solutions.”
Bart Mantje, director ABN AMRO Investment Management, said: “The ETF NAV Trading Facility of Euronext is a big step forward in facilitating the execution of orders for investors, who see the added value of our BASIC ETFs in their investment portfolio. Not every investor is the same, today we offer them the choice to place their orders in the orderbook with continuous liquidity or via the NAV Trading Facility against the end of day NAV. We are very proud to offer this service as the first ETF provider in the market, together with Euronext.”
The NAV Trading Facility is available, in addition to trading via the Central Order Book, for all Euronext-listed open-end funds, including ETFs. It was designed in close consultation with the Euronext College of Regulators and the fund industry. This competitive market model, the only one of its kind, aligned with the recent ESMA’s guidelines for ETFs.