iShares MSCI India ETF now exempt from retail safeguards

Singapore retail investors can now trade the iShares MSCI India Index exchange-traded fund (ETF) without having to undergo knowledge assessment, fund manager BlackRock announced on Thursday.

The fund, which was Singapore's second-most actively traded ETF by volume in the first quarter of 2015, has been reclassified as an "excluded investment product".

That reclassification exempts the ETF from regulatory hurdles intended to restrict retail investors' access to complex investment products. The option for fund managers to seek that exemption for certain of their funds opened up late April when the Monetary Authority of Singapore said investment funds that used derivatives only for portfolio management purposes could be excluded from the suitability restrictions.

State Street's SPDR Gold ETF has also been reclassified as an excluded product since the new rules took effect.