Northern Trust was named as administrator and custodian for National Bank of Abu Dhabi as it made a series of enhancements to the region’s first ETF, including moving from swap based replication to physical replication.
The ETF, which also shifted from index provider Dow Jones UAE 25 Total Return Index (Local) to the MSCI UAE IMI 10/40, is now named NBAD OneShare MSCI UAE ETF and is the first physically replicated fund in the Emirate.
“We have enhanced our ETF following consultations with a number of international authorized participants and in response to a strong demand for physical replication,” said Saleem Khokhar, head of equities at National Bank of Abu Dhabi’s asset management group. “We believe physical replication will increase scalability and remove restrictive collateral requirements and are pleased to work with Northern Trust who, through their depth of expertise and experience in ETF administration could support our sophisticated administrative requirements, enabling us to continue to provide the best in class investment product to our investors.”
(JDC)