iShares has filed paperwork with the SEC for a “iShares Latin America Bond Fund ETF.” The iShares Latin America Bond Fund (the “Fund”) seeks investment results that correspond generally to the price and yield performance, before fees and expenses, of the Barclays Latin America Bond Index. They did not specify a trading symbol or expense ratio in the initial filing.

Principal Investment Strategies

The Underlying Index is designed to measure the performance of U.S. dollar-denominated bond markets of corporate, sovereign and quasi-sovereign issuers domiciled in Latin America. As of April 30, 2012, there were 308 issues in the Underlying Index.

Securities included in the Underlying Index must be issued by entities domiciled in Latin America that satisfy certain eligibility requirements and meet separate security-specific requirements.

Each security issued by an eligible issuer included in the Underlying Index must have a minimum maturity of one year and a certain minimum par amount outstanding, depending on the credit rating and country of domicile.

A security is considered investment grade if it is rated Baa3 or higher by Moody’s® Investors Service, Inc. (“Moody’s”) or BBB- or higher by Standard & Poor’s® (a subsidiary of The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.)(“S&P”) and Fitch, Inc. (“Fitch”) using the middle rating of Moody’s, S&P and Fitch. When ratings from only two of these agencies are available, the lower rating is used. When a rating from only one of these agencies is available, that rating is used to determine index eligibility.

The index includes both emerging market and non-emerging market countries from Latin America. A country is considered an emerging market if it has a foreign currency sovereign rating of Baa1 or lower as determined by Moody’s or BBB+ or lower as determined by S&P or Fitch using the middle rating of Moody’s, S&P or Fitch. When ratings from only two of these agencies are available, the lower rating is used. When a rating from only one of these agencies is available, that rating is used to determine index eligibility. A country is considered a non-emerging market country if it has a foreign currency sovereign rating of A3 or higher as determined by Moody’s or A- or higher as determined by S&P or Fitch.

Securities rated investment grade and domiciled in either an emerging market or a non-emerging market country must have a minimum of $300 million par amount outstanding. Securities rated non-investment grade and domiciled in a non-emerging market country must have a minimum of $150 million par amount outstanding. Securities rated non-investment grade and domiciled in an emerging market country must have a minimum of $500 million par amount outstanding; additionally corporate issuers must have at least $1 billion of aggregate par amount outstanding.

Warrants, convertible securities, private placements, separate trading of registered interest and principal securities (“strips”) and inflation-linked bonds are excluded from the Underlying Index.

As of April 30, 2012, the Underlying Index consisted of issuers from the following countries: Argentina, Belize, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Jamaica, Mexico, Panama, Peru, Trinidad, Uruguay and Venezuela. Component issuers include sovereign and quasi-sovereign entities and industrials companies, and may change over time. As of April 30, 2012, the Underlying Index’s five highest weighted countries were Brazil, Mexico, Venezuela, Colombia and Chile.   BFA uses a “passive” or indexing approach to try to achieve the Fund’s investment objective. Unlike many investment companies, the Fund does not try to “beat” the index it tracks and does not seek temporary defensive positions when markets decline or appear overvalued.

Indexing may eliminate the chance that the Fund will substantially outperform the Underlying Index but also may reduce some of the risks of active management, such as poor security selection. Indexing seeks to achieve lower costs and better after-tax performance by keeping portfolio turnover low in comparison to actively managed investment companies.

BFA uses a representative sampling indexing strategy to manage the Fund. “Representative sampling” is an indexing strategy that involves investing in a representative sample of securities that collectively has an investment profile similar to the Underlying Index. The securities selected are expected to have, in the aggregate, investment characteristics (based on factors such as market capitalization and industry weightings), fundamental characteristics (such as return variability, duration, maturity or credit ratings and yield) and liquidity measures similar to those of the Underlying Index. The Fund may or may not hold all of the securities in the Underlying Index.

The Fund generally invests at least 80% of its assets in the securities of the Underlying Index. However, the Fund may at times invest up to 20% of its assets in certain futures, options and swap contracts, cash and cash equivalents, including money market funds advised by BFA or its affiliates, as well as in securities not included in the Underlying Index, but which BFA believes will help the Fund track the Underlying Index.

The Fund may lend securities representing up to one-third of the value of the Fund’s total assets (including the value of the collateral received).

The Underlying Index is sponsored by an organization (the “Index Provider”) that is independent of the Fund and BFA. The Index Provider determines the composition and relative weightings of the securities in the Underlying Index and publishes information regarding the market value of the Underlying Index. The Fund’s Index Provider is Barclays Capital Inc. (“Barclays Capital”).

For the complete filing click: HERE

NEW FILING