The first Exchange Traded Instrument (ETI) issued under the Malta Securitisation Act went live recently on the European Wholesale Securities Market (EWSM).

The Dynamic Trading Strategies ETI is linked to and backed by a performance linked bond issued by a Special Purpose Acquisition Vehicle allowable under the Securitisation Act of Malta with the sole purpose of holding managed accounts at Interactive Brokers LLC and Sensus Capital Markets plc.

The EWSM is a joint venture between the Malta Stock Exchange and the Irish Stock Exchange and acts as an EU-regulated market for arrangers and issuers of wholesale debt products.

Argentarius ETI Management is the arranger for this innovative financial product. Andreas Woelfl, Argentarius’s CEO said: “This really is a first for Malta and clearly demonstrates the advantages of Malta as a domicile for the issuance of Exchange Traded Instruments backed by and linked to the performance of Alternative Investments.”

This particular issue is the first of its kind in Malta as it is linked by way of a performance bond to the underlying assets. Its performance is derived from that of a management account, consisting of commodity futures contracts, with the result that the ETI is an eligible asset class for a UCITS Fund, even though the commodity futures contracts do not qualify as eligible assets under the UCITS directive.

“We are currently talking to many of the leading advisers to the fund industry in Germany, Malta, Switzerland and the UK and we are looking at several new issues currently,” Mr Woelfl said.