ISE ETF Ventures Inaugural Year-in-Review

The International Securities Exchange Holdings, Inc. (ISE Holdings) announced the inaugural year-in-review for ISE ETF Ventures, the business unit within ISE Holdings dedicated to bringing new exchange traded products (ETPs) to market through capital commitment, business development, and marketing support. During this past year, total assets under management for ETPs tied to ISE ETF Ventures indexes neared $1.3 billion. ISE Holdings remains the only U.S. exchange with a group dedicated to providing start-up funding to enable new ETPs to come to market.

Following the launch of the ISE ETF Ventures brand in January 2013, this group's strengthened focus on ETF and index development resulted in many noteworthy milestones. ISE ETF Ventures significantly grew its footprint in the thriving ETF industry in 2013 through various milestones and partnerships, including:

• Announced a partnership agreement with Index IQ to support and promote new ETPs focusing on physical diamonds.
• Signed a licensing agreement with KSM, the largest ETF issuer in Israel, to license the ISE Water Index (ticker: HHO) for the KSM Water fund (KSMDJWA:IT). The ISE Water Index was named one of the top investment ideas of 2013 by Morgan Stanley Smith Barney's Global Investment Committee.
• Partnered with YieldShares to develop and launch the ISE High Income Index^TM as the basis for the Yield Shares High Income ETF (NYSEArca: YYY).
• Partnered with BlueStar Indexes to develop a family of indexes and use them as a basis for ETPs. The BlueStar Israel Global Index (ticker: BLS) was the first index developed through the partnership and serves as the basis for the Market Vectors® Israel ETF (NYSEArca: ISRA®).
• Partnered with SecuredGrowth Quantitative Research, Inc. (SGQR) to develop and promote indexes that combine the performance of popular ETPs to enhance the return of any benchmark index or portfolio in a fully transparent, low-risk and liquid manner.
• AlphaClone, the leader in hedge fund position replication and one of ISE ETF Ventures' early partners, was nominated for "Indexing Product of the Year" at the 2013 William F. Sharpe Awards.
• Total assets under management for ETPs tied to ISE indexes neared $1.3 billion in 2013.
• ISE ETF Ventures currently has a portfolio of over 30 proprietary indexes, and supports over 15 ETPs and other investment products.
• For the third year in a row, ISE ETF Ventures received the "Most Proactive Exchange for ETF Options/Derivatives" award at the 9^th Annual Global ETF Awards®. 

Kris Monaco, Head of ISE ETF Ventures, said, "We began 2013 with the intention to strengthen our existing relationships while introducing new participants to the industry. We are extremely proud of what we accomplished with our new ETF partners YieldShares and PureFunds as well as our established partnership with AlphaClone. We are also grateful to continue our close collaboration with the numerous firms that license ISE indexes as the underlying for their ETPs. Going forward, our intent is to continue our focus on the dynamic ETF sector and to bring unique, investable products to market."

To learn more about ISE ETF Ventures, its partnerships, and products, please visit www.ise.com/etfventures.