Barclays Launches Eight Bond ETFs

For the first time in three years, some new fixed-income exchange-traded funds are hitting the market.

Barclays Global Investors launched eight bond iShares on the New York Stock Exchange last week, bringing the total number available in the U.S. to 14. Barclays, a unit of Barclays Bank(BCS Quote) of the U.K, is the largest ETF provider in the U.S. and is the only one with bond funds on the market now, although others are believed to be planning new products.

Exchange-traded funds are baskets of securities that trade throughout the day on an exchange. While there are plenty of ETFs that track stock and even commodity indices, bond ETFs are harder to design because fixed-income securities trade over the counter, making it more difficult to obtain prices. Barclays' six other bond ETFs have total assets of around $20 billion, compared with $420 billion for the entire ETF market. ...