WisdomTree, a New York-based firm known for ETFs focusing on currency, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission to add an actively managed exchange-traded fund that focuses on emerging market debt denominated in local currency.

WisdomTree is the second money management firm to make plans to offer a nondollar-denominated emerging market debt fund. Last week, New York-based Van Eck made a filing with the SEC, though Van Eck’s proposed ETF will not be actively managed.

The filing comes at a time when investors are focused both on fast-growing emerging market countries and on risks surrounding possible interest rate increases by the Federal Reserve. Bond prices fall when rates rise, and investors are hunting for securities that have attractive yields or may fare well once credit tightens. The Fed cut official rates to almost zero amid the worst financial crisis since the 1930s.

Holdings of WisdomTree’s Emerging Markets Local Debt Fund will come from a broad range of emerging market issuers in Asia, Latin America, Eastern Europe, Africa and the Middle East, the filing said. The fund will buy debt from emerging market governments, government agencies, corporations and supranational issuers. The filing defined supranational issuers as international organizations such as the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and regional development banks.

Specific countries mentioned in the filing include Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Indonesia, Israel, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Russia, South Africa, South Korea, Thailand and Turkey.

The March 10 filing included neither the proposed management fees, nor potential ranges of duration or maturities of the debt the ETF will hold. The company also didn’t identify the ETF’s trading symbol, but it did note that the fund will be listed on NYSE Arca.