Last week, the U.S. Treasury auctioned $15 billion in two-year floating rate notes in what was the first time since 1997 the Treasury unveiled a new a security to investors.
Exchange traded fund issuers are on the ball as two new floating rate ETFs will debut Tuesday. Those ETFs are the The iShares Treasury Floating Rate Bond ETF (NYSEArca: TFLO) and the WisdomTree Bloomberg Floating Rate Treasury Fund (NYSEArca: USFR).
iShares Treasury Floating Rate Bond ETF seeks to track the Barclays U.S. Treasury Floating Rate Index, a new index initially composed of the first-issued Treasury FRNs. Index holdings are expected to increase with ongoing quarterly issuance of the Treasury FRNs, according to a statement issued by BlackRock (NYSE: BLK), the world’s largest asset manager.
“iShares is thrilled to offer investors the first ETF with exposure to Treasury Floating Rate Notes. TFLO addresses two things investors are looking for today – potentially less interest rate risk in their fixed income portfolios and the relative safety of U.S. Treasuries. TFLO also expands investors’ options for short duration ETFs in today’s challenging market environment,” said Matt Tucker, head of iShares fixed income investment strategy , in the statement.