We at ETF Media, Inc. are offering for sale the top tier generic domain name, ETFs.com for the exchange-traded funds industry.

For an ETF issuer or brokerage firm, the domain name ETFs.com can provide significant marketing advantages and advertising cost efficiencies.

Top tier generic domains are the easiest to find, use, and remember and visitors to generic sites regularly assume the sites are the definitive resource in the industry. This applies not only to Internet advertising, but for all forms of offline advertising.

Recent studies have shown that the use of short, industry specific, generic domain names significantly improves the response rate for Internet advertising from 20% to 105% — directly reducing advertising costs and adding real value to a marketing budget bottom line.

Many corporations have realized this and are using generic domains in this way. For example, the domain name Auction.com was recently acquired in March, 2009 by REDC for $1.7 million. REDC is now using the domain Auction.com in their television advertising, to drive people to their foreclosure auctions. Another example is the recent sale (2/2009) of Toys.com acquired byToys “R” Us for $5.1 million, in a heated auction battle pitting domain investors against an end user in the toy industry. For additional comparable domain sales information, click here.

A few examples (per 40z.com) of companies in the financial industry using top tier generic domains include:

Bank of America	Loans.com
Citigroup	Finance.com
Citigroup	Mortgage.com
CNN	Money.com
Fidelity	Rollovers.com
Northwest Mutual	LifeInsurance.com

Indications of interest will be considered for immediate action.

For further information, please contact Ken at bid@ETFMedia.com or at (800) 558-8090.

In a landmark deal, Peruvian pension funds will swap their holdings in local firms and buy into a US traded ETF on the NYSE. The deal, which could bring several million dollars to the United States, could ultimately lead to many more agreements with developing nations.

The iShares MSCI All Peru Capped Index Fund (EPU: Quote, Profile, Advanced Chart, News) will create $300 million in new shares to complete the transfer. Current pension funds will transfer the shares to iShares, according to Bloomberg.

The transfer will allow Peruvian investors more liquidity in buying and selling assets by taking part in the New York Stock Exchange. For years, Latin American exchanges have been at a standstill due to very little buying and selling action, even on the largest of exchanges. The deal will also give the iShares MSCI All Peru Capped Index Fund greater diversity among Peruvian companies, which have been equally difficult to buy in an illiquid market.

“Exotic” leveraged and short ETFs are beeping on the radar of regulators. After a warning from FINRA, the entity that regulates and offers advice to financial planners, exotic and poorly understood ETFs could be subjected to new regulations.

Exotic exchange-traded funds first touched the regulator’s radar after the SEC received 221 negative letters regarding leveraged ETFs during the short sale ban, as reported by Reuters. A response from ProShares, the largest issuer of leveraged ETFs, was critical of the new regulations and the blame imposed by the SEC. ProShares countered the allegations that leveraged ETFs were dragging down the market by noting that as a whole, the company was actually long $1.9 billion more than it was short.

While no regulations on “exotic” ETFs are officially pending, new regulations are typically enacted after a widespread investigation, such as the one FINRA is currently completing. The agency has been collecting data from brokers and from the ETF issuers themselves particularly to ascertain what demographic is purchasing the ETFs.

To maintain accurate tracking results, iShares will rebalance its iBoxx $ High Yield Corporate Bond Fund (HYG: Quote, Profile, Advanced Chart, News) to reflect upcoming changes the Markit Group is implementing in the underlying index. Through the rebalancing, iShares hopes to better correlate its ETF’s performance with the underlying index, as well as optimize tax-efficiencies while minimizing turnover.

The underlying index, the iBoxx $ Liquid High Yield Index, enacted its changes on June 30, 2009. The complete rebalancing for both the index and the fund will be implemented over the next six months. According to the press release, some of the changes that will occur with the rebalancing include:

1. While the previous methodology outlined a maximum of 50 bonds, there will no longer be a cap on the number of financial instruments held in the index.

2. Under the new methodology, the securities must minimally be $400 million par, which is a change from the previous guidelines of $200 million par.

3. Although the former guidelines did not outline an issuer level minimum, the new methodology stipulates an issuer minimum of $1 million par.

4. Instead of being equally weighted by par value, the new methodology will be modified market value weighted.

The goal of the rebalancing is to furnish investors with improved accuracy in tracking the performance of the high yield market. It is not expected that HYG’s liquidity and close bid/ask spreads shall change due to the rebalancing.

As ProShares extends its double and triple leveraged funds around the world, it is seeking the help of JP Morgan Worldwide Securities Services, which already manages 64 different ProShares funds with more than $25 billion in assets.

The agreement between the two firms will add another eight funds to the list of those managed by JP Morgan, bringing the total to 72. The additional eight funds are as follows:

1. Ultra MSCI EAFE (EFO: Quote, Profile, Advanced Chart, News)

2. Ultra MSCI Emerging Markets (EET: Quote, Profile, Advanced Chart, News)

3. Ultra FYSE/Xinhua China 25 (XPP: Quote, Profile, Advanced Chart, News)

4. Ultra MSCI Japan (EZJ: Quote, Profile, Advanced Chart, News)

5. UltraShort MSCI Europe (EPV: Quote, Profile, Advanced Chart, News)

6. UltraShort MCSI Pacific ex-Japan (JPX: Quote, Profile, Advanced Chart, News)

7. UltraShort MSCI Brazil (BZQ: Quote, Profile, Advanced Chart, News)

8. MSCI Mexico Investable Market (SMK: Quote, Profile, Advanced Chart, News)

JP Morgan has developed an active and profitable business within the ETF scene. With more than $55 billion in assets, the firm services 94 different ETFs with custody, fund accounting and fund administration, according to American Chronicle.