In a bid to bring foreign stocks closer to the United States through ETFs, iShares has filed with the SEC to create two new funds dedicated to overseas financial companies. The new funds will be the first of their kind, but will hope to follow in the footsteps of popular US-based financial ETFs trading on the NYSE.

The iShares MSCI Europe Financial Sector Index Fund will track a composition of stocks very much like its underlying index, which is comprised of 105 companies in 15 different European countries, according to the prospectus. The fund makes no distinctions by the size of the financial institution, indicating that iShares is hoping to create a broad based index ETF, rather than pinpoint a niche within the European markets.

The iShares MSCI Far East Financial Sector Index Fund will work differently than its partner fund, opting to utilize a sampling of stocks to derive similar performance results as its underlying index, according to the prospectus. The underlying index contains 93 different banks, insurance and real estate companies in three different Asian countries, including Hong Kong, Japan and Singapore.

Traders in Singapore can now join the American bears in making profitable honey from the falling S&P. Deutsche Bank is launching a new ETF in Singapore designed to inversely track the returns of the US S&P 500 index. Inverse ETFs are popular among small traders who do not have access to margin accounts or the right to borrow shares to sell short.

As reported by Reuters, the S&P 500 Short ETF (XSPS) debuted February 19, 2009 on the Singapore Exchange. The new ETF will be one of 29 on the Singapore Exchange, where ETFs have yet to gain steam with the same velocity as the American markets. However, Deutsche Bank hopes to duplicate in Asia the success it has enjoyed offering ETFs in Europe. According to Asian Investor, Thorsten Michalik, the global head of DB X-Trackers with Deutsche Bank, stated that assets managed under Asian ETFs are expected to grow to more than $85 billion by the close of 2010.

Prior to the new ETF, the Singapore markets were void of any inverse funds and offered a very limited selection of cross-listed ETFs posted both on the US and Singapore Exchange.

With the American Stock Exchange (AMEX) completing its merge with the NYSE Euronext, Northern Trust Global Investments (NTGI) will be transferring six of its NETS brand ETFs to the new united exchange. PRNewswire identifies the six ETFs that had been trading on the AMEX and will be making the move. These ETFs are: NETS FTSE 100 Index Fund (UK) ETF (LDN: Quote, Profile, Advanced Chart, News), NETS DAX Index Fund (Germany) ETF (DAX: Quote, Profile, Advanced Chart, News), NETS S&P/ASX 200 Index Fund (Australia) ETF (AUS: Quote, Profile, Advanced Chart, News), NETS S&P/MIB Index Fund (Italy) ETF (ITL: Quote, Profile, Advanced Chart, News), NETS FTSE/JSE Top 40 Index Fund (South Africa) ETF (JNB: Quote, Profile, Advanced Chart, News), NETS FTSE Singapore Straits Times Index Fund ETF (SGT: Quote, Profile, Advanced Chart, News).

Barclays Global Investors has announced the launch of its newest iShares ETF to capture a broad and diversified piece of various Asian markets. Michael Latham, CEO of U.S. iShares at Barclays is quoted to say, “Since iShares launched the first pure mainland China ETF for U.S. investors in 2005, investors have continued to ask for deeper access to the Asian markets.” Market Wire explains that the new ETF, known as iShares MSCI All Country Asia ex Japan Index Fund ETF (AAXJ), will provide access to equity markets across Asia, such as China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, and Thailand. AAXJ is now listed on the NASDAQ Stock Market.

The db x-tracker brand of ETF came onto the market at the beginning of 2007, and over the past year and a half, the Deutsche bank products have led in popularity as asset inflows have been tops in Europe. The Comtex article explains that the Deutsche bank db x-trackers grew to more than E15 billion of asset value during its first 18 months in existence. Thorsten Michalik, head of db x-trackers at Deutsche Bank, discusses this growth in the article by mentioning, “One interesting aspect of our growth is that we raised our assets under management by over E7.2 billion in the first six month of 2008, which makes us the clear European leader in terms of assets inflow.” There have been 86 of these ETFs introduced since January 2007 across Europe, and now Deutsche bank is planning to get even bigger by releasing more funds in the Asian countries of Hong Kong, Japan, and Singapore.