Barclays Capital, the investment banking division of Barclays Bank, has listed the iPath Dow Jones-UBS Commodity Index Total Return exchange-traded note on the Singapore Exchange.

This is the first-ever ETN listed in Asia outside Japan and provides both institutional and retail investors with exposure to a broad range of commodities during the Asian time zone.

iPath ETNs were first launched by Barclays Capital in the US in 2006 and are designed to provide investors with convenient access to the returns of market benchmark indices, less investor fees. The iPath ETNs are senior, unsecured, unsubordinated debt securities linked to the performance of an underlying index.

“We are very excited to bring the iPath ETN platform to investors in Asia. iPath ETNs have been tremendously successful in the US attracting over USD5bn in market capitalisation with over USD80bn in volume traded since inception,” says Philippe El-Asmar, head of investor solutions at Barclays Capital. “iPath ETNs provide investors with simple, transparent, cost efficient instruments that provide access to difficult–to-reach markets with the ease of trading through an exchange.”

Janice Kan, senior vice president and head of product development at SGX, adds: “We are pleased to be the first listing venue for Barclays Capital’s iPath ETN platform in Asia. The launch of this new product class broadens our suite of investment offerings and will provide investors with cost-efficient access to the commodities asset class, and eventually, a range of other asset classes. This underpins our efforts in developing SGX as the one-stop investment gateway in Asia.”