Claymore Securities, the Lisle, Ill.-based ETF provider that was acquired by Guggenheim Partners in October, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission to change two index-based bond ETFs into actively managed portfolios and switch their names to reflect the new owner.

The adoption of quantitative strategies is designed to achieve risk-adjusted returns in excess of the Barclays Capital U.S. Aggregate Bond Index in the case of one of the funds, and a one- to three-month U.S. Treasury index for the other. The existing funds haven’t gathered many assets since they were rolled out in early 2008.

The two affected funds are:

• The Claymore U.S. Capital Markets Bond ETF (NYSEArca: UBD), which will become the Guggenheim Enhanced Core Bond ETF. It will trade on the NYSE using the symbol “GIY” and seek to beat the so-called BarCap index;
• The Claymore U.S. Capital Markets Micro-Term Fixed Income ETF (NYSEArca: ULQ), which will become the Guggenheim Enhanced Ultra-Short Bond ETF. It will trade on the NYSE with the ticker “GSY,” and be managed with the aim of beating the short-term Treasurys index.

The one active bond ETF that has garnered attention this year as it has gathered assets is the Pimco Enhanced Short Maturity Strategy ETF (NYSEArca: MINT). It’s a money market proxy, and had upward of $800 million in assets at the end of May, as investor anxiety about Europe’s economic challenges mounted. It had $333 million in assets at the end of July, partly a sign that the anxiety is ebbing.

By contrast, both Claymore funds haven’t gathered nearly as many assets since their launches in February 2008. ULQ had about $15 million in assets at the end of last month, while UBD had just shy of $11 million, according to Claymore’s Web site.

Both of the newly minted fixed-income funds will have caps on annual expense ratios of 0.27 percent of assets under management, the same as the current versions of the fund.

The company didn’t say exactly when the changes would be effective.