Standard & Poor’s has licensed seven major European exchange-traded fund sponsors to create and list ETFs based on the S&P 500.
The seven new S&P 500 ETFs are expected to list on exchanges in major European cities beginning today and throughout the month of May.
More investors in more markets will be able to trade the S&P 500 in real-time on their local exchanges.
The S&P 500 Index has over USD3.5trn benchmarked to it globally, with index assets comprising approximately USD1trn of this total.
The idex includes 500 companies in leading industries of the US economy.
“There is strong, pent-up demand across all of Europe for access to US market returns, as measured by the S&P 500,” says Alex Matturri, executive managing director at S&P Indices. “By licensing major ETF sponsors in strategic markets across Europe, Standard & Poor’s is ensuring that investors of all types – from institutional to active traders to self-directed retail investors – will have direct access to the S&P 500 through as many distribution channels as possible via leading product sponsors.”
The S&P 500 licensing agreements are part of Standard & Poor’s push to provide expanded access to the US equity markets for investors. It comes on the heels of Standard & Poor’s licensing of the National Stock Exchange of India to create and list Indian Rupee-denominated futures contracts on the S&P 500.
