ITALY – Barclays Global Investors and SanPaolo IMI have launched an Italian exchange traded fund that will start trading on February 28.

BGI’s iShares said it has registered the iShares S&P 500 fund on the MTF platform, the Borsa Italiana’s specialist ETF platform launched last year.

“Barclays Global Investors, which manages iShares ETFs, and SanPaolo Group have brought the iShares S&P 500 Fund to the Italian market,” they said in a statement.

SanPaolo IMI Institutional Asset Management is to act as the marketing agent and Banca IMI as market maker.

The MTF platform currently has nine ETFs trading with assets under management of three billion euros.

Lee Kranefuss, BGI’s chief executive for individual investor business said: “There is strong demand in Italy to bring to market a cost-effective way for investors to gain access to the largest, most liquid American securities.”

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