NASDAQ OMX And HQ Bank Launch New Portfolio Of Exchange Traded Funds

NASDAQ OMX Nordic, part of the NASDAQ OMX Group (NASDAQ:NDAQ), together with HQ Bank today announced the launch of a new portfolio of Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) that will allow Nordic investors to trade internationally recognized indices in local currency. The ETFs issued by HQ Bank will be based on indices calculated by NASDAQ OMX and traded on NASDAQ OMX Stockholm.

Trading of the ETFs from HQ Bank will start beginning of October 2009 (pending regulatory approvals). Between launch in October and January 2010 HQ Bank plans to list around ten ETFs at NASDAQ OMX Stockholm.

Jenny Rosberg, Deputy CEO at NASDAQ OMX Nordic said: “Through this partnership with HQ Bank we are able to offer both institutional and retail investors in the Nordics the same trading opportunities in ETFs as investors around the world. The expansion of our ETF offering well matches customer needs and is an important step in developing our local market, which holds great potential for this type of product.”

Mikael König, CEO at HQ Bank said: “This launch marks an important milestone for the Swedish ETF market, and we look forward to continue our collaboration with NASDAQ OMX to grow our offering in this space. Our ETF portfolio provides a perfect complement to managed funds, and is an investor-friendly and cost-efficient tool for index investments as the products are traded the same way as equities on a liquid market.”