An Exchange Traded Instrument (ETI) is an exchange-traded security that packages an investment strategy into a single instrument identified by an ISIN. Legally it is a debt security of its issuer, not a fund, so the investor takes issuer risk that a fund structure would not create. Whether a given ETI is collateralised, which venue it trades on, and whether a particular broker will accept an order in it all vary by instrument and have to be checked in its prospectus and final terms.
Most investors know ETFs. Far fewer know ETIs, even though the two trade side by side on the same exchanges. The difference is not cosmetic: it determines who manages your money, what protects it, and which strategies you can actually reach. This guide explains the structure in plain language.
How an ETI works
General rule An ETI starts with a strategy: a defined way of allocating capital, whether systematic or discretionary. A securitisation issuer wraps that strategy into a security issued under a base prospectus. A base prospectus is approved by a single competent authority and can then be passported into other member states, with the final terms fixing the parameters of each individual issueEUR-Lex.
Liechtenstein For the instruments on this platform the issuer is iMaps ETI AG. Its base prospectus is approved by the Liechtenstein Financial Market Authority and passported to several EU member states, and its ETI Securities are admitted to trading on the Regulated Unofficial Market of the Stuttgart Stock Exchange and/or the Unregulated Market of the Vienna Stock ExchangeiMaps. That distinction is worth pausing on, because “listed” is doing less work here than it appears to. Neither of those venues is an EU regulated market within the meaning of MiFID II: they are exchange-operated open-market segments with lighter admission requirements. The instrument is genuinely exchange-traded, and the prospectus regime still applies — but the continuous-disclosure and admission obligations that attach to a regulated-market listing do not, and any comparison with an ETF on a regulated market should account for it. The approving authority for the programme is the FMAFMA.
Four distinct roles keep the structure honest:
- The strategy developer designs and supplies the underlying strategy. They do not hold your money.
- The portfolio manager executes the strategy inside the instrument. For the ETIs available through Framont Access, this is Framont & Partners Management Ltd, an AIFM authorised by the Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA).
- The issuer and market maker issues the security, maintains the segregated portfolio and quotes daily buy and sell prices on the exchange.
- The security trustee, an independent party, holds a pledge over the underlying assets for the benefit of investors.
The collateral structure: what stands behind the paper
Because an ETI is a debt security, the first question a careful investor asks is: what happens if the issuer fails? This is where collateralised ETI structures differ from ordinary bank-issued certificates.
General rule There is no single ETI collateral model, and this is the point at which generalising is most expensive. Broadly, three arrangements appear in the market: an uncollateralised note, where the holder has an unsecured claim on the issuer and nothing more; a segregated-portfolio structure, where the assets bought by the strategy are ring-fenced to that series so they are not pooled with other series of the same issuer; and a secured structure, where those assets are additionally pledged to an independent security trustee who can enforce them for the benefit of that series' holders on an issuer default.
The three are not interchangeable, and the words used to market them frequently blur. Segregation determines which pool of assets your claim points at; a security interest determines whether you rank ahead of the issuer's general creditors over that pool; neither converts a debt security into a fund unit, and neither removes issuer risk entirely. Enforcement also takes time and costs money, so even a fully secured structure does not guarantee recovery at the last published value.
Framont example For any specific instrument on this platform, do not infer the model from this page or from a product summary. The base prospectus and the instrument's final terms are the documents that state whether assets are segregated, whether a security interest exists, who the trustee is and what triggers enforcement. The issuer publishes its programme documentation, including the current base prospectus and its supplementsiMaps, and that is where the answer for a given ISIN is found.
ETI vs ETF vs AMC vs UCITS fund
The labels sound interchangeable. The structures are not:
| Feature | ETI | ETF | AMC | UCITS fund |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Legal form | Debt security of the issuer | Fund (segregated assets) | Debt security of the issuer | Fund (segregated assets) |
| Management | Usually active | Usually passive (index) | Active | Active or passive |
| Exchange admission | Usually an open-market segment | Regulated market | Often, not always | Rarely |
| Issuer risk | Yes, mitigated when collateralised | No (fund assets) | Yes, unless collateralised | No (fund assets) |
| Time to launch | Weeks | Months | Weeks | Months |
| Typical minimum | Per final terms | One share | Per final terms, often higher | Per fund rules |
In short: ETFs and UCITS funds give you fund-level asset protection and, usually, index exposure. ETIs and AMCs give you access to specialist, actively managed strategies that would rarely justify the cost and lead time of a full fund launch, in exchange for taking structured, disclosed issuer risk.
How to buy an ETI
- Find the ISIN. Every ETI has one, published on the product page and in the final terms.
- Read the KID and prospectus first. The Key Information Document summarises risks, costs and scenarios on three pages. Your broker must make it available before you invest.
- Check that your broker can actually trade it. This is the step most often assumed away. An instrument admitted to an open-market segment is not reachable from every European brokerage account: some brokers do not offer the venue, some decline securitised debt instruments as a category, and some will hold an existing position but not open a new one. Ask your broker about the specific ISIN before assuming access, and ask whether the order routes to the exchange or over the counter through the paying agent.
- Treat the spread as the real cost, and the market maker as the real liquidity. Tradable does not mean liquid. In practice the price you get comes from a market maker's quote rather than from a book of other investors, so establish whether a market maker is contractually obliged to quote, within what spread and up to what size, and what happens when the underlying assets themselves stop trading. Compare bid and ask before trading, particularly for larger orders.
Who can invest
General rule Offering rights differ per instrument and per country, and both facts sit in the final terms rather than in any summary. Some ETIs are restricted to professional and institutional investors as defined under MiFID II Annex II; others carry retail offering rights, but only in the specific jurisdictions into which the prospectus has been passportedEUR-Lex. Minimum investment amounts are set instrument by instrument in the final terms; this page previously quoted a typical figure, which has been removed because no single figure describes the range and the number in any given final terms is the only one that binds. Distributors are required to check eligibility and appropriateness before accepting a subscription, which is why platforms such as Framont Access verify investor category during onboarding.
ETIs on Framont Access
Framont example Framont Access currently lists five ETIs, all issued within the iMaps Capital Markets group with portfolio management by Framont & Partners Management Ltd — a division of roles the issuer's own product record confirmsiMaps: HERAKLIT Strategy ETI, a systematic multi-asset strategy built on physics-based regime detection; Tech Megatrend Tactical ETI, a tactical, liquidity-driven US technology strategy; Snow White — Value Edge ETI, a discretionary multi-market long/short strategy developed by Giovanni Zibordi; IVN Global ETI, an actively managed global long/short strategy across equity indices, currencies, commodities and digital assets; and Erere Quant Income ETI, a systematic options-income strategy on US equities and ETFs. The HERAKLIT and Tech Megatrend product pages publish the ISIN, KID, prospectus and fee schedule; for the other three the Key Information Document and product documentation are available from Framont & Partners Management Ltd.
Before you buy: seven checks and the document that answers each
Every question below has a definitive answer in a specific document. If a distributor cannot point you at the document, treat the answer as unverified.
| Check | Where the answer is |
|---|---|
| Who is the issuer, and what is its financial standing? | Base prospectus — issuer description and financial statements |
| Are the assets segregated, and is there a security interest? | Base prospectus — security and segregation provisions; final terms for the series |
| Who is the security trustee, and what triggers enforcement? | Base prospectus — trust deed / security documents |
| Which venue is it admitted to, and is that a regulated market? | Final terms — admission to trading section |
| Is a market maker obliged to quote, and within what limits? | Final terms and the exchange's market-making rules |
| May it be offered to me, in my country, at what minimum? | Final terms — offering jurisdictions and denomination |
| What are the total costs, and the exit terms? | KID, where one exists, and the final terms |
Source Document roles follow Regulation (EU) 2017/1129, which governs what a base prospectus and final terms must containEUR-Lex. Portfolio-manager authorisation can be confirmed independently in the MFSA Financial Services RegisterMFSA.