Barclays In Talks With Chinese Fund Companies On Fixed-Income ETFs

5th Jul 2010 12:31

SHANGHAI (Dow Jones)--Barclays Capital, the investment bank owned by Barclays PLC (BCS), is in talks with several Chinese mutual-fund companies that are considering launching exchange-traded funds investing in foreign fixed-income products using Barclays' fixed income indexes as their benchmark, a Barclays Capital executive said Monday. Barclays Capital on Monday signed a memorandum of understanding with the Shanghai Stock Exchange to become the first approved provider of global fixed-income indexes in China, Waqas Samad, head of index, portfolio and risk solutions at Barclays Capital, said during a briefing. China's regulators have yet to allow Chinese fund-management companies to issue exchange-traded funds under the Qualified Domestic Institutional Investors program that would allow Chinese investors to invest in foreign index-linked funds directly in China. But Samad said there has been strong demand from China's asset-management companies to launch fixed-income ETFs under China's QDII program. He said the first Chinese ETF investing in global bonds could materialize soon. "I'd love to see that happen this year," he said. "But it can happen early next year as well." -By Joy C. Shaw, Dow Jones Newswires; (86-21) 6120-1200; [email protected] (END) Dow Jones Newswires July 05, 2010 07:31 ET (11:31 GMT)