Eaton Vance's [profile] new ETF-like product structure is now one step closer to becoming reality.

Yesterday, Eaton Vance chairman and CEO Tom Faust reveals, the SEC granted the exemption for Eaton Vance's proposed exchange-traded managed funds, a product structure that would allow for real-time trading (like ETFs) and less than daily portfolio holdings disclosures (like mutual funds). Now the SEC just has to approve the specific registration statements of the 18 initial ETMFs that Eaton Vance aims to launch in the second quarter of 2015 under the new NextShares brand.

The SEC's latest move follows two favorable actions last month, when the SEC announced its intent to issue an exemptive order for the ETMF idea and then gave its blessing for the NASDAQ's request to adopt a rule around listing and trading ETMFs.

Faust calls yesterday's SEC order "a further milestone in the development of NextShares."

Eaton Vance subsidiary Navigate Fund Solutions holds the intellectual property for the proposed ETMFs. Eaton Vance aims to license the ETMF idea to other mutual fund shops, too. Stephen Clarke, president of Navigate, states that "since last month's favorable SEC news," Eaton Vance has "been actively engaged in discussions with fund sponsors, distributors, market makers exchanges and industry thought leaders to facilitate the rapid development of NextShares as a new mutual fund alternative." 

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