If all goes according to plan and the SEC keeps smiling on Eaton Vance [profile], the Boston-based mutual fund shop's first 18 ETF-like active mutual funds should hit the shelves in the spring, under the NextShares brand.

The expectation is that those first "exchange-traded managed funds" (ETMFs), as Eaton Vance is calling them, will be released in the second quarter of 2015, pending regulatory approval, Eaton Vance spokeswoman Robyn Tice confirms. And other fund firms may be following suit soon, too.

"We anticipate a large number of fund companies signing up," Stephen Clarke, president of Eaton Vance subsidiary Navigate Fund Solutions, tells MFWire, adding that there's a "tremendous amount of interest" from fund firms in ETMFs.

That interest, Clarke says, has amplified in the wake of two favorable regulatory movies last week by the Securities and Exchange Commission. Late on Thursday the SEC revealed its intent to issue an exemptive order for the ETMF idea, and on Friday the SEC gave its blessing to NASDAQ's request to adopt a rule around listing and trading such ETMFs.

Tom Faust, chairman and CEO of Eaton Vance, called the end of last week "a pivotal two days in the development of NextShares."

Looking ahead, for the 18 NextShares to launch, the SEC would have to approve their specific registration statements (filed on July 30) as well as the specific NASDAQ requests related to each. And the exemptive order itself is not yet here; for those who have an interest, it is still possible to request an SEC hearing on the matter; if no such hearing request is granted, the SEC plans to issue that order in early December.

The 18 proposed NextShares ETMFs are:

-the Eaton Vance 5-15 Year Laddered Municipal Income ETMF (the sole ETMF not based on the same strategy as an existing Eaton Vance mutual fund);
-the Eaton Vance Balanced ETMF;
-the Eaton Vance Bond ETMF;
-the Eaton Vance Floating-Rate ETMF;
-the Eaton Vance Global Dividend Income ETMF;
-the Eaton Vance Global Macro Absolute Return ETMF;
-the Eaton Vance Government Obligations ETMF;
-the Eaton Vance High Income Opportunities ETMF;
-the Eaton Vance High Yield Municipal Income ETMF;
-the Eaton Vance Large-Cap Growth ETMF;
-the Eaton Vance Large-Cap Value ETMF;
-the Eaton Vance National Municipal Income ETMF;
-the Eaton Vance Richard Bernstein All Asset Strategy ETMF;
-the Eaton Vance Richard Bernstein Equity Strategy ETF;
-the Eaton Vance Small-Cap ETMF;
-the Parametric Emerging Markets ETMF; and
-the Parametric International Equity ETMF. 

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