Barclays' Launches Two International Treasury Bond Funds

Barclays Global Investors has launched the iShares S&P/Citigroup International Treasury Bond Fund and the iShares S&P/Citigroup 1-3 Year International Treasury Bond Fund. The new funds offer ways to access the international fixed income markets, according to Barclays.

The iShares S&P/Citigroup International Treasury Bond Fund seeks investment results that generally correspond to the price and yield performance, before fees and expenses, of the S&P/Citigroup International Treasury Bond Index Ex-US Index. The underlying index is a market value-weighted index, designed to measure the performance of Treasury bonds issued in local currencies by developed market countries outside of the U.S. that have a remaining maturity greater than one year. According to Barclays, as of December 31, 2008, the index securities were issued by the following 19 countries: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.

The iShares S&P /Citigroup 1-3 Year International Treasury Bond Fund seeks investment results that generally correspond to the price and yield performance, before fees and expenses, of the S&P/Citigroup International Treasury Bond Index Ex-US 1-3 Year Index. The underlying index is also a market value-weighted index, designed to measure the performance of Treasury bonds issued in local currencies by developed market countries outside of the U.S. that have a remaining maturity of greater than one year and less than or equal to three years. As of December 31, 2008, the index securities were issued by the same19 countries as listed above.