.jpg)
The NASDAQ OMX Group, Inc. (Nasdaq:NDAQ) today announced that NASDAQ OMX's Mutual Fund Quotation Service (MFQS) is now pricing structured notes and market-linked certificates of deposits (CD's) in a groundbreaking initiative to provide enhanced price transparency for issuers and investors.
"NASDAQ OMX is constantly striving to enhance market transparency so it is collaborating with the leadership of the Structured Products Association to provide valuation data for structured notes and other structured products to millions of investors and market participants," said Jeff Kimsey, Vice President, NASDAQ OMX Global Information Services. "With the addition of structured products to our world-class Mutual Fund Quotation System, we are providing a more complete view of assets across multiple classes."
NASDAQ OMX has an exclusive agreement to work with the SPA to promote and accelerate the growth of SEC-registered structured products eligible for dissemination through NASDAQ OMX's MFQS. This information will be available to millions of investors around the globe at no additional charge.
MFQS is a renowned pricing system that facilitates the collection and dissemination of daily price, dividends and capital distributions data for mutual funds, money market funds, unit investment trusts (UITs), annuities and structured products.
"As a well-established and widely-accepted pricing mechanism, MFQS is positioned to provide a unique opportunity for structured products to compete with other investments," stated Keith Styrcula, chairman of the Structured Products Association. "By utilizing the same pricing formats as mutual funds and UITs, MFQS will permit market participants around the world to easily access pricing on notes and CDs in the system."
As is the case for Mutual Funds, Closed-End Funds and UITs, providing pricing to MFQS is purely voluntary on the part of issuers and sponsors. Close to 100 percent of all U.S. mutual funds are priced daily via MFQS.
Structured products are an essential investment class in the U.S. Structured products encompass a range of financial instruments, such as securities that derive their value from and provide exposure to various asset classes. These asset classes include single securities, baskets of securities, indexes, options, commodities, debt issuances and/or foreign currencies.
