Barclays puts state-specific ETFs in play

The first state-specific municipal-bond exchange traded funds began trading today, Barclays Global Investors of San Francisco announced. The state municipal iShares ETFs – the iShares S&P California Municipal Bond Fund and the iShares S&P New York Municipal Bond Fund – are designed to track liquid, institutional quality municipal bond indexes from Standard & Poor’s of New York. The S&P California Municipal Bond Index is a subset of the S&P National Municipal Bond Index and is comprised of municipal bonds from issuers in California. The S&P New York Municipal Bond Index is also a subset of the S&P National Municipal Bond Index and is comprised of municipal bonds from issuers in New York. Each bond in the indexes must have a rating of at least BBB- by Standard & Poor’s, Baa3 by Moody’s Investors Service Inc. of New York or BBB- by Fitch Inc. of New York. Each bond must also have a minimum par amount outstanding of $ 50 million. The indexes are market-value weighted and the securities in the indexes are updated after the market close on the last business day of each month. The two state-specific muni ETFs will have an annual expense ratio of 0.25%.