Under the agreement, Nasdaq will assume responsibility for the calculation, dissemination and commercialization of these indexes, and will work closely with KBW to jointly promote the products and benchmarks to new market participants worldwide.

"We have a proven track record of leveraging our brand, relationships and distribution channels to grow the adoption of our index families around the world; so teaming with a world-class organization like KBW is logical for us," said Salil Donde, Executive Vice President, Nasdaq Global Information Services. "KBW is known for its breadth of research and expertise in financial services and its indexes offer investors the purest, most-targeted exposure to individual financial sectors."

Currently, there are a number of outside influences impacting financials, such as the potential of higher interest rates, increased regulatory scrutiny and continued industry consolidation. The KBW products offer investors specific ways to play or hedge the sector.

The KBW Nasdaq family of indexes are closely watched benchmarks and are widely cited in the media as barometers for the health of the financial sector. The exchange traded funds (ETFs) based on these indexes provide investors with exposure to the niche-specific sectors within the financial industry — without overlapping components or with unwanted securities.

The targeted sectors include banking, asset management, broker/dealer, insurance, equity REITs and mortgage finance. The index family includes:

KBW Nasdaq Bank Index (BKX.TO)
KBW Nasdaq Regional Banking Index (Ticker:Ticker::KRX)
KBW Nasdaq Capital Markets Index (Ticker:Ticker::KSX)
KBW Nasdaq Insurance Index (Ticker:Ticker::KIX)
KBW Nasdaq Property & Casualty Index (Ticker:Ticker::KPX)
KBW Nasdaq Premium Yield Eq. REIT Index (Ticker:Ticker::KYX)
KBW Nasdaq Financial Sector Dividend Yield Index (KDX.TO)
KBW Nasdaq Global Financials (ex-U.S.) Index (Ticker:Ticker::KGX)
KBW Nasdaq Mortgage Finance Index (MFX.V)

Thomas B. Michaud, CEO of KBW, said, "We are excited to co-brand our products with an indexing powerhouse like Nasdaq. We believe Nasdaq's brand and expertise will be instrumental in bolstering visibility for our indexes and in the future, introduce new global financial sector indexes to investors worldwide."

As a result of the KBW Nasdaq partnership, Nasdaq will expand its relationship with Invesco PowerShares, a leading exchange-traded fund provider, and now bring the total number of PowerShares ETFs tracking a Nasdaq index to 44, with over $52 billion in assets under management.

"The KBW indexes are an extremely valuable brand, and we are excited about the new energy Nasdaq will bring to this partnership," said Dan Draper, Invesco PowerShares Managing Director of Global ETFs. "Financial Services is the largest sector of the overall global market and while many products lump all financial services companies together, they fail to recognize that financial companies tend to trade on different factors."