Compliance October 9, 2007

EBSA Unveils Fiduciary Education Web Site

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) on Tuesday unwrapped a new Web site designed to help employers better comply with federal employee benefit laws under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA).
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An EBSA news release said the Web site, called ERISA Fiduciary Advisor, is designed to help employers and retirement plan service providers understand their responsibilities.

The site provides an ERISA overview, including the most common compliance mistakes EBSA finds in its investigations, and provides links to additional information as well as tools to assist plan officials, according to the release.

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The site guides users through windows to navigate its tools and facts about retirement laws.

More information is available at www.dol.gov/elaws/ERISAFiduciary.htm.

Products October 9, 2007

SSgA Launches International Treasury Bond ETF

State Street Global Advisors (SSgA), the investment management arm of State Street Corporation, announced that the SPDR Lehman International Treasury Bond ETF (Ticker: BWX) began trading on the American Stock Exchange on October 5.
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According to the announcement, the fund is the first international bond exchange-traded fund (ETF) available to U.S. investors and is designed to provide precise, low-cost access to international fixed income, an asset class that has historically had a low correlation with U.S. stock and bond markets.

The SPDR Lehman International Treasury Bond ETF seeks to track the total return performance of the Lehman Brothers Global Treasury Ex-US Capped Index. The Index tracks fixed-rate local currency sovereign debt of investment grade countries outside of the U.S. As of August 31, 2007, the Index provided exposure to 674 issues from 18 countries denominated in 11 currencies.

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The SPDR Lehman International Treasury Bond ETF has an annual expense ratio of 0.50%, the announcement said.

SSgA has launched a family of fixed income ETFs including the SPDR Lehman Municipal Bond ETF announced on September 13.

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