Bloomberg on China MM ETF
Bloomberg writes "CCB Unit Said to Offer Europe's First RQFII Money market ETF", which says, "CCB International Asset Management Ltd. will offer Europe's first exchange-traded fund that invests in China's money market, said two people familiar with the matter. The ETF will be listed in London and will be tradeable in yuan, euro, or pounds, the people, who asked not to be identified as the plan hasn't been announced publicly, said Monday." (Note: This isn't really a "money market" vehicle, since currency fluctuations are involved, but rather a "currency" fund.) The article continues, "It will give access to China's onshore market via renminbi qualified foreign institutional investors, they said. CCB International, a unit of China Construction Bank Corp., will release an official statement in due course, the company said in an e-mail Monday." The Bloomberg piece continues, "China is certainly an attractive destination for money managers around the world, given the high yields," said `Wang Ming, chief operations officer at Shanghai Yaozhi Asset Management LLP, which oversees 2 billion yuan ($322 million) of fixed-income holdings <b:>`_. "A global environment of low interest rates will probably persist this year, so yuan assets will continue to be attractive." Yu'EBao, China's largest money-market fund with 579 billion yuan of assets under management, offers a return of about 4.5 percent, according to data released on the website of Tianhong Asset Management Co., the investment vehicle's manager. That compares with the one-year local benchmark deposit rate of 2.5 percent. There are around 40 ETFs registered in the U.S. tracking China's shares and debt." Also, in other news, The Washington Post published the story, "G Fund's Return Would Drop to Nearly Zero Under House Plan," and The Wall Street Journal wrote Monday, "After Seven Years, Shadow Credit Finally Recovers." The latter story says, "Seven years after the financial crisis, a key form of lending among financial institutions finally appears to have bottomed out, a reversal that could presage a long-awaited uptick in U.S. economic growth. The New York-based Center for Financial Stability says that February showed an increase in the short-term credit that circulates among investment banks like Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and big non-bank managers of money-market funds such as Vanguard."
