Standard & Poor’s, the world’s leading index provider, announced today that it has licensed Tokyo-based Nomura Asset Management to use the RTS Index to launch a program of locally traded Exchange Traded Notes (ETNs). Nomura Asset Management has filed for the ETN listing on the Osaka Stock Exchange.

“This agreement with Nomura AM represents the most recent in a series of successful licensing agreements generated under our commercial partnership with RTS. This is a pioneering deal in that it adds Japan as a new geographic dimension – while opening up a whole new class of exchange traded instruments, ETNs – based on the RTS Index”, said Yuri Morozov, Director of Standard & Poor’s Index Services in Russia/CIS.

“The RTS index demonstrates Russia’s attractiveness to investors from all over the world. ETNs have become one of the fastest growing segments of the global markets and are accessed by more and more investors. We are glad to see that foreign companies are keen to establish equity-linked instruments based on Russian underlyings. Once again, the RTS Index has proven its appeal as the recognized benchmark for the Russian stock market”, said Roman Goryunov, Chairman of the Board of RTS, the Russian Trading System.