State Street Global Advisors and MarketAxess Launch Innovative SPDR ETF

State Street Global Advisors, the asset management business of State Street Corporation, today announced the launch of the SPDR MarketAxess Investment Grade 400 Corporate Bond ETF (LQIG).

Designed to blend the advantages of an ETF with the tradability benefits of investing in US Investment grade corporate bonds with higher liquidity compared to the broader U.S. corporate bond market, LQIG offers investors credit exposure with the potential for tighter bid-ask spreads, lower premium/discounts, and more transparency into the underlying holdings' real-time valuations.

"The growth of electronic bond trading volume coupled with the increasing adoption of fixed income ETFs is bringing the benefits of bond liquidity to all investors,"said Rory Tobin, Global Head of SPDR ETF Business at State Street Global Advisors."Given State Street's heritage as a liquidity leader in the ETF market, we're excited to be working with MarketAxess, one of the world's largest electronic fixed income trading venues, to launch LQIG. This innovative SPDR ETF is designed to provide bond investors with access to U.S. corporate bonds with higher relative liquidity and tradability."

The SPDR MarketAxess Investment Grade 400 Corporate Bond ETF seeks to track the MarketAxess U.S. Investment Grade 400 Corporate Bond Index. The Index measures the performance of 400 U.S. dollar denominated investment grade corporate bonds with higher-than-average liquidity relative to the broader U.S. corporate bond market. Powered by MarketAxess' proprietary liquidity and pricing data, the Index combines actionable liquidity with broad market exposure.

"Most fixed income indices are designed to reflect an investment with broad market exposure and not for tradable products where the underlying components are regularly available. By contrast, the MarketAxess U.S. Investment Grade 400 Corporate Bond Index, launched last month, prioritizes liquidity, transparency, and a high availability of the constituent bonds,"said Chris Concannon, President and Chief Operating Officer at MarketAxess."We believe the launch of LQIG will be instrumental in supporting increased tradability in the traditionally fragmented and less liquid fixed income market."