RBS unveils monthly leveraged ETFs in Europe

The Royal Bank of Scotland has launched 12 ETFs providing exposure to monthly leveraged and euro currency hedged indices.

The leveraged funds, released on the Deutsche Boerse, track indices that rebalance on a monthly basis rather than on a daily basis, as offered by most other leveraged ETFs.

The currency-hedged funds replicate the S&P 500 and Topix indices in euros, allowing investors to gain exposure with a currency hedge.

The bank's global head of structured funds David Moroney says: "Prior to this, only ETFs with daily leveraged indices were available in Europe. Thanks to monthly rebalancing, investors will now have access to a leveraged performance that is consistent for longer than one day."

Six of the funds will start trading today, including the RBS Market Access Leveraged FTSE 100 Monthly and other leveraged ETFs tracking the MIB and DAX. There are also two-times leveraged short versions of the FTSE 100, MIB and DAX, providing inverse exposure to the indices so investors gain when markets fall.

A further six funds will start trading on Thursday, including leveraged and short ETFs tracking the Eurostoxx 50 and S&P GSCI, as well as the S&P 500 and Topix funds.

The new ETFs join the bank's existing range of Ucits III compliant sub-funds of RBS Market Access, a Sicav vehicle.