December 29, 2023 | |
Nuveen Credit Income Fund |
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Ticker Symbols: Class A—FJSIX, Class C—FCSIX, Class I—FJSYX |
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Nuveen Strategic Income Fund |
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Ticker Symbols: Class A—FCDDX, Class C—FCBCX, Class R6—FSFRX, Class I—FCBYX |
STATEMENT OF ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
This Statement of Additional Information (“SAI”) is not a prospectus. This SAI relates to, and should be read in conjunction with, the Prospectus dated December 29, 2023 for Nuveen Credit Income Fund and Nuveen Strategic Income Fund (each, a “Fund,” and collectively, the “Funds”), each a series of Nuveen Investment Funds, Inc. A Prospectus may be obtained without charge from certain securities representatives, banks and other financial institutions that have entered into sales agreements with Nuveen Securities, LLC (the “Distributor”), or from a Fund, by written request to the applicable Fund, c/o Nuveen Funds, P.O. Box 219140, Kansas City, Missouri 64121-9140, or by calling (800) 257-8787.
The audited financial statements for each Fund’s most recent fiscal year appear in the Fund’s Annual Report dated August 31, 2023, which is incorporated herein by reference and is available without charge by calling (800) 257-8787.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
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Collateralized Debt Obligations and Collateralized Loan Obligations |
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Distressed and Defaulted Securities in a Workout Arrangement |
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Reduction or Elimination of Up-Front Sales Charge on Class A Shares |
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Reduction or Elimination of Contingent Deferred Sales Charge |
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Additional Payments to Financial Intermediaries and Other Payments |
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GENERAL INFORMATION
Nuveen Investment Funds, Inc. (“NIF”) was incorporated in the State of Maryland on August 20, 1987 under the name “SECURAL Mutual Funds, Inc.” The Board of Directors and shareholders, at meetings held January 10, 1991, and April 2, 1991, respectively, approved amendments to the Articles of Incorporation providing that the name “SECURAL Mutual Funds, Inc.” be changed to “First American Investment Funds, Inc.” At a meeting held February 27, 2011, the Board of Directors approved the name “First American Investment Funds, Inc.” be changed to “Nuveen Investment Funds, Inc.”
NIF is organized as a series fund and currently issues its shares in 17 series. Each series of shares represents a separate investment portfolio with its own investment objective(s) and policies (in essence, a separate mutual fund).
The Funds are diversified open-end management investment companies. Nuveen Credit Income Fund was formerly named Nuveen High Income Bond Fund. The Funds’ investment adviser is Nuveen Fund Advisors, LLC (“Nuveen Fund Advisors” or the “Adviser”). The Funds’ sub-adviser is Nuveen Asset Management, LLC (“Nuveen Asset Management” or the “Sub-Adviser”).
Nuveen Fund Advisors and its affiliate, Teachers Advisors, LLC (“TAL”), are both wholly owned subsidiaries of Nuveen, LLC, the investment management arm of Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America (“TIAA”). As a result of their common ownership by Nuveen, LLC and, ultimately, TIAA, Nuveen Fund Advisors and TAL are considered affiliated persons under common control, and the registered investment companies managed by each are considered to be part of the same group of investment companies.
Shareholders may purchase shares of each Fund through separate classes, Class A, Class C, Class R6 (except for Nuveen Credit Income Fund) and Class I shares. The different share classes provide for variations in distribution costs, shareholder servicing fees, voting rights and dividends. To the extent permitted by the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended (the “1940 Act”), the Funds may also provide for variations in other costs among the classes. In addition, a sales load is imposed on the sale of Class A and Class C shares of the Funds. Except for the foregoing differences among the classes pertaining to costs and fees, each share of each Fund represents an equal proportionate interest in that Fund.
The Articles of Incorporation and Bylaws of NIF provide that meetings of shareholders be held as determined by the Board of Directors and as required by the 1940 Act. Maryland corporation law requires a meeting of shareholders to be held upon the written request of shareholders holding 10% or more of the voting shares of NIF, with the cost of preparing and mailing the notice of such meeting payable by the requesting shareholders. The 1940 Act requires a shareholder vote for, among other things, all amendments to fundamental investment policies and restrictions, for approval of investment advisory contracts and amendments thereto, and for amendments to Rule 12b-1 distribution plans.
INVESTMENT RESTRICTIONS
In addition to the investment objectives and policies set forth in the Prospectus and under “Investment Policies and Techniques” below, each Fund is subject to the investment restrictions set forth below. The investment restrictions set forth in numbers (1) through (7) below are fundamental and cannot be changed with respect to a Fund without approval by the holders of a majority of the outstanding shares of that Fund as defined in the 1940 Act, i.e., by the lesser of the vote of (a) 67% of the shares of the Fund present at a meeting where more than 50% of the outstanding shares are present in person or by proxy, or (b) more than 50% of the outstanding shares of the Fund.
None of the Funds will:
(1) Concentrate its investments in a particular industry, except that any Fund with one or more industry concentrations implied by its name shall, in normal market conditions, concentrate in securities of issues within that industry or industries. For purposes of this limitation, the U.S. government, and state or municipal governments and their political subdivisions are not considered members of any industry. Whether a Fund is concentrating in an industry shall be determined in accordance with the 1940 Act, as interpreted or modified from time to time by any regulatory authority having jurisdiction.
(2) Borrow money or issue senior securities, except as permitted under the 1940 Act, as interpreted or modified from time to time by any regulatory authority having jurisdiction.
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(3) With respect to 75% of its total assets, purchase securities of an issuer (other than (i) securities issued by other investment companies, (ii) securities issued by the U.S. government, its agencies, instrumentalities or authorities, or (iii) repurchase agreements fully collateralized by U.S. government securities) if (a) such purchase would, at the time, cause more than 5% of the Fund’s total assets taken at market value to be invested in the securities of such issuer; or (b) such purchase would, at the time, result in more than 10% of the outstanding voting securities of such issuer being held by the Fund.
(4) Purchase or sell physical commodities, unless acquired as a result of ownership of securities or other instruments; but this restriction shall not prohibit a Fund from investing in options on commodity indices, commodity futures contracts and options thereon, commodity-related swap agreements, other commodity-related derivative instruments, and investment companies that provide exposure to commodities.
(5) Purchase or sell real estate unless as a result of ownership of securities or other instruments, but this shall not prevent the Funds from investing in securities or other instruments backed by real estate or interests therein or in securities of companies that deal in real estate or mortgages.
(6) Act as an underwriter of securities of other issuers, except to the extent that, in connection with the disposition of portfolio securities, it may be deemed an underwriter under applicable laws.
(7) Make loans, except as permitted under the 1940 Act, as interpreted or modified from time to time by any regulatory authority having jurisdiction.
Except with respect to the limitation set forth in number (2) above, the foregoing restrictions and limitations will apply only at the time of purchase of securities, and the percentage limitations will not be considered violated unless an excess or deficiency occurs or exists immediately after and as a result of an acquisition of securities, unless otherwise indicated.
For purposes of applying the limitation set forth in number (1) above, according to the current interpretation by the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”), a Fund would be concentrated in an industry if 25% or more of its net assets, based on current market value at the time of purchase, were invested in that industry. For purposes of this limitation, issuers of the following securities will not be considered to be members of any industry: securities of the U.S. government and its agencies or instrumentalities; except as set forth in the following sentence, tax-exempt securities of state, territory, possession or municipal governments and their authorities, agencies, instrumentalities or political subdivisions; and repurchase agreements collateralized by any such obligations. To the extent that the income from a municipal bond is derived principally from the assets and revenues of non-governmental users, the securities will be deemed to be from the industry of that non-governmental user. To the extent a Fund invests in other investment companies, it will consider the investments of the underlying investment companies when determining compliance with the limitation set forth in number (1) above, to the extent the Fund has sufficient information about such investments. For purposes of this limitation, all sovereign debt of a single country will be considered investments in a single industry.
Where a security is guaranteed by a governmental entity or some other facility, such as a bank guarantee or letter of credit, such a guarantee or letter of credit would be considered a separate security and would be treated as an issue of such government, other entity or bank.
For purposes of applying the limitations set forth in numbers (1) and (3) above, an issuer shall be deemed the sole issuer of a security when its assets and revenues are separate from other governmental entities and its securities are backed only by its assets and revenues. Similarly, in the case of a non-governmental user, such as an industrial corporation or a privately owned or operated hospital, if the security is backed only by the assets and revenues of the non-governmental user, then such non-governmental user would be deemed to be the sole issuer. Where a security is also backed by the enforceable obligation of a superior or unrelated governmental entity or other entity (other than a bond insurer), it shall also be included in the computation of securities owned that are issued by such governmental or other entity.
For purposes of applying the limitation set forth in number (2) above, under the 1940 Act as currently in effect, a Fund is not permitted to issue senior securities, except that a Fund may borrow from any bank if immediately after such borrowing the value of the Fund’s total assets is at least 300% of the principal amount of all of the Fund’s borrowings (i.e., the principal amount of the borrowings may not exceed 33⅓% of the Fund’s total assets). In the event that such asset coverage shall at any time fall below 300%, the Fund shall, within three calendar days thereafter (not including Sundays and holidays), reduce
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the amount of its borrowings to an extent that the asset coverage of such borrowing shall be at least 300%.
For purposes of applying the limitation set forth in number (7) above, there are no limitations with respect to unsecured loans made by a Fund to an unaffiliated party. However, if a Fund loans its portfolio securities, the obligation on the part of the Fund to return collateral upon termination of the loan could be deemed to involve the issuance of a senior security within the meaning of Section 18(f) of the 1940 Act. In order to avoid violation of Section 18(f), the Fund may not make a loan of portfolio securities if, as a result, more than one-third of its total asset value (at market value computed at the time of making a loan) would be on loan.
In addition to the foregoing fundamental investment policies, each Fund is also subject to the following non-fundamental restrictions and policies, which may be changed by the Board of Directors.
A Fund may not:
(1) Acquire any illiquid investment if, immediately after the acquisition, the Fund would have invested more than 15% of its net assets in illiquid investments.
(2) Acquire any securities of registered open-end investment companies or registered unit investment trusts in reliance on subparagraph (F) or subparagraph (G) of Section 12(d)(1) of the 1940 Act.
(3) Invest directly in futures, options on futures and swaps to the extent that the Adviser would be required to register with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”) as a commodity pool operator. See “Investment Policies and Techniques—Derivatives—Limitations on the Use of CFTC-Regulated Futures, Options on Futures and Swaps.”
For purposes of number (1) above, each Fund will monitor portfolio liquidity on an ongoing basis and, in the event that more than 15% of a Fund’s net assets are invested in illiquid investments, the Fund will reduce such holdings to at or below the 15% limit within a reasonable period of time. The term “illiquid investments” has the same meaning as given in Rule 22e-4 under the 1940 Act and associated guidance.
The Board of Directors has adopted guidelines and procedures under which the Adviser is to determine whether the following types of securities which may be held by certain Funds are “liquid” and to report to the Board concerning its determinations: (i) securities eligible for resale pursuant to Rule 144A under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”); (ii) commercial paper issued in reliance on the “private placement” exemption from registration under Section 4(2) of the Securities Act, whether or not it is eligible for resale pursuant to Rule 144A; (iii) interest-only and principal-only, inverse floating and inverse interest-only securities issued or guaranteed by the U.S. government or its agencies or instrumentalities; and (iv) municipal leases and securities that represent interests in municipal leases.
Nuveen Credit Income Fund has adopted a non-fundamental investment policy pursuant to Rule 35d-1 under the 1940 Act (the “Name Policy”) whereby the Fund, under normal circumstances, will invest at least 80% of the sum of its net assets and the amount of any borrowings for investment purposes in credit and credit-related instruments. As a result, the Fund must provide shareholders with a notice meeting the requirements of Rule 35d-1(c) at least 60 days prior to any change of its Name Policy. The Fund will consider both direct investments and indirect investments (e.g., investments in other investment companies, derivatives and synthetic instruments with economic characteristics similar to the direct investments that meet the Name Policy) when determining compliance with the Name Policy. For purposes of the Name Policy, a Fund will value eligible derivatives at fair value or market value instead of notional value.
INVESTMENT POLICIES AND TECHNIQUES
The following information supplements the discussion of the Funds’ investment objectives, principal investment strategies, policies and techniques that appears in the Prospectus for the Funds. Additional information concerning principal investment strategies of the Funds, and other investment strategies that may be used by the Funds, is set forth below in alphabetical order.
If a percentage limitation on investments by a Fund stated in this SAI or its Prospectus is adhered to at the time of an investment, a later increase or decrease in percentage resulting from changes in asset value will not be deemed to violate the limitation except in the case of the limitations on borrowing. To the extent a Fund is limited to investing in securities with specified ratings or of a certain credit quality, the Fund is not required to sell a security if its rating is reduced or its credit quality declines after purchase,
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but may consider doing so. In connection with a Fund’s ratings restrictions, any reference in this SAI or the Prospectus to a specific rating encompasses all gradations of that rating (e.g., if this SAI or the Prospectus states that a Fund may invest in securities rated as low as B, the Fund may invest in securities rated B-). Descriptions of the rating categories of Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services, a division of The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. (“Standard & Poor’s”), Fitch, Inc. (“Fitch”) and Moody’s Investors Service, Inc. (“Moody’s”) are contained in Appendix A. The descriptions in Appendix A are provided for illustrative purposes only. A Fund may consider ratings given by Standard & Poor’s, Fitch, Moody’s or any other Nationally Recognized Statistical Rating Organization (“NRSRO”) or, for unrated securities, ratings assigned by the Sub-Adviser, when determining whether it is in compliance with the ratings and credit quality limitations on investments by the Fund stated in this SAI or the Prospectus.
References in this section to the Adviser also apply, to the extent applicable, to the Sub-Adviser of the Funds.
Asset-Backed Securities
The Funds may invest in asset-backed securities. Asset-backed securities are securities that are secured or “backed” by pools of various types of assets on which cash payments are due at fixed intervals over set periods of time. Asset-backed securities are created in a process called securitization. In a securitization transaction, an originator of loans or an owner of accounts receivables of a certain type of asset class sells such underlying assets in a “true sale” to a special purpose entity, so that there is no recourse to such originator or owner. Payments of principal and interest on asset-backed securities typically are tied to payments made on the pool of underlying assets in the related securitization. Such payments on the underlying assets are effectively “passed through” to the asset-backed security holders on a monthly or other regular, periodic basis. The level of seniority of a particular asset-backed security will determine the priority in which the holder of such asset-backed security is paid, relative to other security holders and parties in such securitization. Examples of underlying assets include consumer loans or receivables, home equity loans, automobile loans or leases, and time shares, though other types of receivables or assets also may be used.
While asset-backed securities typically have a fixed, stated maturity date, low prevailing interest rates may lead to an increase in the prepayments made on the underlying assets. This may cause the outstanding balances due on the underlying assets to be paid down more rapidly. As a result, a decrease in the originally anticipated interest from such underlying securities may occur, causing the asset-backed securities to pay-down in whole or in part prior to their original stated maturity date. Prepayment proceeds would then have to be reinvested at the lower prevailing interest rates. Conversely, prepayments on the underlying assets may be less than anticipated, causing an extension in the duration of the asset-backed securities.
Delinquencies or losses that exceed the anticipated amounts for a given securitization could adversely impact the payments made on the related asset-backed securities. This is a reason why, as part of a securitization, asset-backed securities are often accompanied by some form of credit enhancement, such as a guaranty, insurance policy, or subordination. Credit protection in the form of derivative contracts may also be purchased. In certain securitization transactions, insurance, credit protection, or both may be purchased with respect to only the most senior classes of asset-backed securities, on the underlying collateral pool, or both. The extent and type of credit enhancement varies across securitization transactions.
The ratings and creditworthiness of asset-backed securities typically depend on the legal insulation of the issuer and transaction from the consequences of a sponsoring entity’s bankruptcy, as well as on the credit quality of the underlying receivables and the amount and credit quality of any third-party credit enhancement supporting the underlying receivables or the asset-backed securities. Asset-backed securities and their underlying receivables generally are not issued or guaranteed by any governmental entity.
Event-Linked Bonds
The Funds may purchase event-linked bonds or “catastrophe bonds.” Event-linked bonds are asset-backed securities generally issued by special purpose vehicles organized by insurance companies, with interest payments tied to the insurance losses of casualty insurance contracts. Large insurance losses, such as those caused by a trigger event, such as a hurricane, earthquake or other physical or weather-related phenomenon, will reduce the interest payments and, accordingly, a Fund may lose a portion or all of its principal invested in the bond or suffer a reduction in credited interest. Small losses will lead to above-market interest payments. Generally, event-linked bonds are issued as Rule 144A securities (i.e.,
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securities which are not registered under the Securities Act, but which can be sold to certain institutional buyers in accordance with Rule 144A under the Securities Act). If a trigger event causes losses exceeding a specific amount in the geographic region and time period specified in a bond, liability under the terms of the bond is limited to the principal and accrued interest of the bond. If no trigger event occurs, a Fund will recover its principal plus interest. Often, event-linked bonds provide for extensions of maturity that are mandatory, or optional at the discretion of the issuer, in order to process and audit loss claims in those cases where a trigger event has, or possibly has, occurred. An extension of maturity may increase volatility. In addition to the specified trigger events, event-linked bonds may also expose a Fund to certain unanticipated risks including but not limited to issuer risk, credit risk, liquidity risk, counterparty risk, adverse regulatory or jurisdictional interpretations and adverse tax consequences.
Borrowing
Joint Credit Agreement
The Funds, along with certain other funds managed by the Adviser (“Participating Funds”), are parties to a 364-day, approximately $2.7 billion credit agreement with a group of lenders (the “Credit Agreement”), which expires in June 2024, unless extended or renewed. The Funds may borrow under the Credit Agreement to meet shareholder redemptions and for other lawful temporary purposes. Borrowing results in interest expense and being a Participating Fund results in other fees and expenses, which may increase a Fund’s net expenses and reduce the Fund’s return. In addition, borrowing by a Fund may create leverage by increasing a Fund’s investment exposure. This will result in any changes in the Fund’s net asset value, either positive or negative, being greater than they would have been if the Fund had not borrowed. Participating Funds have been allocated different first priority portions of the committed amount of the credit facility based primarily on the expected likelihood and extent of the need to borrow under the Credit Agreement. Administration, legal, arrangement, upfront and undrawn fees under the Credit Agreement are allocated among Participating Funds based upon these first priority portions of the aggregate commitment available to them and other factors deemed relevant by the Adviser and the Board of each Participating Fund, while fees on any amounts drawn by a Participating Fund under the Credit Agreement are borne by that Participating Fund.
Inter-Fund Borrowing and Lending
The SEC has granted an exemptive order permitting registered open-end and closed-end Nuveen Funds to participate in an inter-fund lending facility whereby the Nuveen Funds may directly lend to and borrow money from each other for temporary purposes (e.g., to satisfy redemption requests or when a sale of securities “fails,” resulting in an unanticipated cash shortfall) (the “Inter-Fund Program”). The closed-end Nuveen Funds will participate only as lenders, and not as borrowers, in the Inter-Fund Program because such closed-end funds rarely, if ever, need to borrow cash to meet redemptions. The Inter-Fund Program is subject to a number of conditions, including, among other things, the requirements that (1) no Nuveen Fund may borrow or lend money through the Inter-Fund Program unless it receives a more favorable interest rate than is typically available from a bank or other financial institution for a comparable transaction; (2) no Nuveen Fund may borrow on an unsecured basis through the Inter-Fund Program unless the Nuveen Fund’s outstanding borrowings from all sources immediately after the inter-fund borrowing total 10% or less of its total assets; provided that if the borrowing Nuveen Fund has a secured borrowing outstanding from any other lender, including but not limited to another Nuveen Fund, the inter-fund loan must be secured on at least an equal priority basis with at least an equivalent percentage of collateral to loan value; (3) if a Nuveen Fund’s total outstanding borrowings immediately after an inter-fund borrowing would be greater than 10% of its total assets, the Nuveen Fund may borrow through the inter-fund loan on a secured basis only; (4) no Nuveen Fund may lend money if the loan would cause its aggregate outstanding loans through the Inter-Fund Program to exceed 15% of its net assets at the time of the loan; (5) a Nuveen Fund’s inter-fund loans to any one Nuveen Fund shall not exceed 5% of the lending Nuveen Fund’s net assets; (6) the duration of inter-fund loans will be limited to the time required to receive payment for securities sold, but in no event more than seven days; and (7) each inter-fund loan may be called on one business day’s notice by a lending Nuveen Fund and may be repaid on any day by a borrowing Nuveen Fund. In addition, a Nuveen Fund may participate in the Inter-Fund Program only if and to the extent that such participation is consistent with the Nuveen Fund’s investment objective(s) and investment policies. The Board of Directors of the Nuveen Funds is responsible for overseeing the Inter-Fund Program.
The limitations detailed above and the other conditions of the SEC exemptive order permitting the Inter-Fund Program are designed to minimize the risks associated with Inter-Fund Program for both the lending fund and the borrowing fund. However, no borrowing or lending activity is without risk. When a
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Fund borrows money from another Nuveen Fund, there is a risk that the loan could be called on one day’s notice or not renewed, in which case the Fund may have to borrow from a bank at a higher rate or take other actions to payoff such loan if an inter-fund loan is not available from another Nuveen Fund. Any delay in repayment to a lending fund could result in a lost investment opportunity or additional borrowing costs.
Cash Equivalents and Short-Term Investments
The Funds may invest in cash, cash equivalents, and a variety of short-term instruments in such proportions as warranted by prevailing market conditions and the Fund’s principal investment strategies. The Funds may temporarily invest without limit in such instruments for liquidity purposes, or in an attempt to respond to adverse market, economic, political or other conditions. During such periods, a Fund may not be able to achieve its investment objective.
Each Fund will only invest in short-term instruments that are U.S. dollar-denominated.
Short-term instruments include obligations of the U.S. government or its agencies or instrumentalities (see “U.S. Government Securities” below) and, without limitation, the following:
(1) Certificates of Deposit. Each Fund may invest in certificates of deposit issued against funds deposited in a bank or savings and loan association. Such certificates are for a definite period of time, earn a specified rate of return, and are normally negotiable. If such certificates of deposit are non-negotiable, they will be considered illiquid investments and be subject to the Fund’s 15% restriction on investments in illiquid investments. Pursuant to the certificate of deposit, the issuer agrees to pay the amount deposited plus interest to the bearer of the certificate on the date specified thereon. Under current FDIC regulations, the maximum insurance payable as to any one certificate of deposit is $250,000; therefore, certificates of deposit purchased by a Fund may not be fully insured.
(2) Bankers’ Acceptances. Each Fund may invest in bankers’ acceptances, which are short-term credit instruments used to finance commercial transactions. Generally, an acceptance is a time draft drawn on a bank by an exporter or an importer to obtain a stated amount of funds to pay for specific merchandise. The draft is then “accepted” by a bank that, in effect, unconditionally guarantees to pay the face value of the instrument on its maturity date. The acceptance may then be held by the accepting bank as an asset or it may be sold in the secondary market at the going rate of interest for a specific maturity.
(3) Repurchase Agreements. Each Fund may invest in repurchase agreements which involve purchases of debt securities. In such an action, at the time a Fund purchases the security, it simultaneously agrees to resell and redeliver the security to the seller, who also simultaneously agrees to buy back the security at a fixed price and time. This assures a predetermined yield for a Fund during its holding period since the resale price is always greater than the purchase price and reflects an agreed-upon market rate. Such actions afford an opportunity for a Fund to invest temporarily available cash. A Fund may enter into repurchase agreements only with respect to certain obligations. For each Fund, collateral may consist of any fixed income security which is an eligible investment for the Fund entering into the repurchase agreement. The Funds’ custodian will hold the securities underlying any repurchase agreement, or the securities will be part of the Federal Reserve/Treasury Book Entry System. The market value of the collateral underlying the repurchase agreement will be determined on each business day. If at any time the market value of the collateral falls below the repurchase price under the repurchase agreement (including any accrued interest), the appropriate Fund will promptly receive additional collateral (so the total collateral is an amount at least equal to the repurchase price plus accrued interest). Repurchase agreements may be considered loans to the seller, collateralized by the underlying securities. The risk to a Fund is limited to the ability of the seller to pay the agreed-upon sum on the repurchase date; in the event of default, the repurchase agreement provides that the affected Fund is entitled to sell the underlying collateral. If the value of the collateral declines after the agreement is entered into, however, and if the seller defaults under a repurchase agreement when the value of the underlying collateral is less than the repurchase price, the Fund could incur a loss of both principal and interest. The portfolio managers monitor the value of the collateral at the time the action is entered into and at all times during the term of the repurchase agreement. The portfolio managers do so in an effort to determine that the value of the collateral always equals or exceeds the agreed-upon repurchase price to be paid to a Fund. If the seller were to be subject to a federal bankruptcy proceeding, the ability of a Fund to liquidate the collateral could be delayed or impaired because of certain provisions of the bankruptcy laws.
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(4) Bank Time Deposits. Each Fund may invest in bank time deposits, which are monies kept on deposit with banks or savings and loan associations for a stated period of time at a fixed rate of interest. There may be penalties for the early withdrawal of such time deposits, in which case the yields of these investments will be reduced.
(5) Eurodollar and Yankee Instruments. Each Fund may invest in Eurodollar certificates of deposit issued by foreign branches of U.S. or foreign banks; Eurodollar time deposits, which are U.S. dollar-denominated deposits in foreign branches of U.S. or foreign banks; and Yankee certificates of deposit, which are U.S. dollar-denominated certificates of deposit issued by U.S. branches of foreign banks and held in the United States. In each instance, the Funds may only invest in bank instruments issued by an institution which has capital, surplus and undivided profits of more than $100 million or the deposits of which are insured by the Bank Insurance Fund or the Savings Association Insurance Fund.
(6) Commercial Paper. Each Fund may invest in commercial paper, which are short-term unsecured promissory notes issued by corporations to finance their current operations. Issues of commercial paper normally have maturities of less than nine months and fixed rates of return. The Funds may purchase commercial paper consisting of issues rated at the time of purchase within the two highest rating categories by Standard & Poor’s, Fitch or Moody’s, or which have been assigned an equivalent rating by another NRSRO. The Funds also may invest in commercial paper that is not rated but that is determined by the Sub-Adviser to be of comparable quality to instruments that are so rated.
(7) Money Market Funds and Short-Term Debt Funds. Each Fund may invest in money market funds. The Funds will bear their proportionate share of the money market fund’s fees and expenses (see “Other Investment Companies” below). The Funds may hold securities of other mutual funds that invest primarily in debt obligations with remaining maturities of 13 months or less.
(8) Variable Amount Master Demand Notes. Each Fund may invest in variable amount master demand notes, which are unsecured demand notes that permit the indebtedness thereunder to vary and provide for periodic adjustments in the interest rate according to the terms of the instrument. Because master demand notes are direct lending arrangements between a Fund and the issuer, they are not normally traded. Although there is no secondary market in the notes, a Fund may demand payment of principal and accrued interest at any time. While the notes are not typically rated by credit rating agencies, issuers of variable amount master demand notes (which are normally manufacturing, retail, financial, and other business concerns) must satisfy the same criteria as set forth above for commercial paper. The Sub-Adviser will consider the earning power, cash flow and other liquidity ratios of the issuers of such notes and will continuously monitor their financial status and ability to meet payment on demand.
(9) Variable Rate Demand Obligations. Each Fund may invest in variable rate demand obligations (“VRDOs”), which are securities in which the interest rate is adjusted at predesignated periodic intervals. VRDOs may include a demand feature which is a put that entitles the holder to receive the principal amount of the underlying security or securities and which may be exercised either at any time on no more than 30 days’ notice or at specified intervals not exceeding 397 calendar days on no more than 30 days’ notice.
Collateralized Debt Obligations and Collateralized Loan Obligations
The Funds may invest in Collateralized Debt Obligations (“CDOs”) and Nuveen Credit Income Fund may invest in Collateralized Loan Obligations (“CLOs”). CDOs are debt obligations typically issued by a private special-purpose entity and collateralized principally by debt securities, including, for example, high yield, high-risk bonds, structured finance securities including asset-backed securities, mortgage-backed securities and REITs. CLOs are similar to CDOs, but are typically collateralized principally by a pool of loans, which may include, among others, domestic and foreign senior secured loans, senior unsecured loans, and subordinate corporate loans, including loans that may be rated below investment grade. The special purpose entity typically issues one or more classes (sometimes referred to as “tranches”) of rated debt securities, one or more unrated classes of debt securities that are generally treated as equity interests, and a residual equity interest. The tranches of CDOs and CLOs typically have different interest rates, projected weighted average lives and ratings, with the higher rated tranches paying lower interest rates. One or more forms of credit enhancement are almost always necessary in a CDO/CLO structure to obtain the desired credit ratings for the most highly rated debt securities issued by a CDO or CLO. The types of credit enhancement used include “internal” credit enhancement provided by the underlying
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assets themselves, such as subordination, excess spread and cash collateral accounts, hedges provided by interest rate swaps, and “external” credit enhancement provided by third parties, principally financial guaranty insurance issued by monoline insurers. Despite this credit enhancement, CDO and CLO tranches can experience substantial losses due to actual defaults, increased sensitivity to defaults due to collateral default and the disappearance of lower rated protecting tranches, market anticipation of defaults, as well as aversion to CDO and CLO securities as a class.
CDOs and CLOs can be less liquid than other publicly held debt issues, and require additional structural analysis. Typically, CLOs are privately offered and sold, and thus, are not registered under the securities laws. As a result, investments in CLOs may be illiquid and may have limited independent pricing transparency. Although a secondary market in CLOs may develop, there can be no assurance that it would provide the holders of the CLOs like Nuveen Credit Income Fund with liquidity of investment or will continue for the life of the CLO. See “Illiquid Investments” below.
Common Stock and Partnership Units
The Funds may invest in common stock and master limited partnership (“MLP”) and other partnership units. The Sub-Adviser anticipates that such investments will consist predominantly of income-oriented equity securities or partnership units. Common stock represents units of ownership in a corporation. Owners typically are entitled to vote on the selection of directors and other important matters as well as to receive dividends on their holdings. In the event that a corporation is liquidated, the claims of secured and unsecured creditors and owners of bonds and preferred stock take precedence over the claims of those who own common stock. The price of common stock is generally determined by corporate earnings, type of products or services offered, projected growth rates, experience of management, liquidity, and general market conditions for the markets on which the stock trades. Stocks may decline significantly in price over short or extended periods of time. Price changes may occur in the market as a whole, or they may occur in only a particular country, company, industry, or sector of the market. In addition, the types of stocks in which a particular Fund invests may underperform the market or may not pay dividends as anticipated.
A limited partnership is a partnership consisting of one or more general partners, jointly and severally responsible as ordinary partners, and by whom the business is conducted, and one or more limited partners who contribute cash as capital to the partnership and who generally are not liable for the debts of the partnership beyond the amounts contributed. Limited partners are not involved in the day-to-day management of the partnership. They receive income, capital gains and other tax benefits associated with the partnership project in accordance with terms established in the partnership agreement. Typical limited partnerships are in real estate, oil and gas and equipment leasing, but they also finance movies, research and development, and other projects. For an organization classified as a partnership under the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended (the “Code”), each item of income, gain, loss, deduction, and credit is not taxed at the partnership level but flows through to the holder of the partnership unit. This allows the partnership to avoid double taxation and to pass through income to the holder of the partnership unit at lower individual rates.
An MLP is a publicly traded limited partnership. The partnership units are registered with the SEC and are freely exchanged on a securities exchange or in the over-the-counter market. The risks of investing in a MLP are generally those involved in investing in a partnership as opposed to a corporation. For example, state law governing partnerships is often less restrictive than state law governing corporations. Accordingly, there may be fewer protections afforded investors in a MLP than investors in a corporation. Additional risks involved with investing in a MLP are risks associated with the specific industry or industries in which the partnership invests, such as the risks of investing in real estate, or oil and gas industries.
Contingent Capital Securities
The Funds may invest in contingent capital securities. Contingent capital securities (sometimes referred to as “CoCos”) are hybrid securities, issued primarily by non-U.S. financial institutions, which have loss absorption mechanisms benefitting the issuer built into their terms. CoCos provide for mandatory conversion into the common stock of the issuer or a permanent or temporary full or partial write-down of the principal amount of the security upon the occurrence of certain “triggers” linked to minimum regulatory capital thresholds. In addition, they may explicitly provide for mandatory conversion or a principal write-down upon the occurrence of certain events such as regulatory bodies calling into question the issuing institution’s continued viability as a going-concern. Equity conversion or principal write-down features are tailored to the issuer and its regulatory requirements and, unlike traditional convertible securities, conversions are not voluntary and are not intended to benefit the investor.
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A trigger event for CoCos would likely be the result of, or related to, the deterioration of the issuer’s financial condition (e.g., a decrease in the issuer’s capital ratio) and status as a going concern. In such a case, with respect to CoCos that provide for conversion into common stock upon the occurrence of the trigger event, the market price of the issuer’s common stock received by a Fund will have likely declined, perhaps substantially, and may continue to decline, which may adversely affect the Fund’s net asset value. Further, the issuer’s common stock would be subordinate to the issuer’s other classes of securities and therefore would worsen a Fund’s standing in a bankruptcy proceeding. In addition, because the common stock of the issuer may not pay a dividend, investors in these instruments could experience a reduced income rate, potentially to zero. In view of the foregoing, CoCos are often rated below investment grade and are subject to the risks of high yield securities.
CoCos may be subject to an automatic write-down (i.e., the automatic write-down of the principal amount or value of the securities, potentially to zero, and the cancellation of the securities) under certain circumstances, which could result in a Fund losing a portion or all of its investment in such securities. In addition, a Fund may not have any rights with respect to repayment of the principal amount of the securities that has not become due or the payment of interest or dividends on such securities for any period from (and including) the interest or dividend payment date falling immediately prior to the occurrence of such automatic write-down. An automatic write-down could also result in a reduced income rate if the dividend or interest payment is based on the security’s par value. Coupon payments on CoCos may be discretionary and may be cancelled by the issuer for any reason or may be subject to approval by the issuer’s regulator and may be suspended in the event there are insufficient distributable reserves.
In certain scenarios, investors in CoCos may suffer a loss of capital ahead of equity holders or when equity holders do not. The prices of CoCos may be volatile. There is no guarantee that a Fund will receive a return of principal on CoCos. Any indication that an automatic write-down or conversion event may occur can be expected to have a material adverse effect on the market price of CoCos.
Convertible Securities
Each Fund may invest in debt securities which are convertible into or exchangeable for, or which carry warrants or other rights to acquire, common or preferred stocks. Such convertible securities are hybrid securities that combine the investment characteristics of bonds and common stocks. Convertible securities typically consist of debt securities or preferred securities that may be converted within a specified period of time (typically for the entire life of the security) into a certain amount of common stock or other equity security of the same or a different issuer at a predetermined price. They also include debt securities with warrants or common stock attached and derivatives combining the features of debt securities and equity securities. Convertible securities entitle the holder to receive interest paid or accrued on debt, or dividends paid or accrued on preferred securities, until the security matures or is redeemed, converted or exchanged.
The market value of a convertible security generally is a function of its “investment value” and its “conversion value.” A security’s “investment value” represents the value of the security without its conversion feature (i.e., a comparable non-convertible fixed income security). The investment value is determined by, among other things, reference to its credit quality and the current value of its yield to maturity or probable call date. At any given time, investment value is dependent upon such factors as the general level of interest rates, the yield of similar non-convertible securities, the financial strength of the issuer and the seniority of the security in the issuer’s capital structure. A security’s “conversion value” is determined by multiplying the number of shares the holder is entitled to receive upon conversion or exchange by the current price of the underlying security. If the conversion value of a convertible security is significantly below its investment value, the convertible security will trade like non-convertible debt or a preferred security in the sense that its market value will not be influenced greatly by fluctuations in the market price of the underlying security into which it can be converted. Instead, the convertible security’s price will tend to move in the opposite direction from interest rates. Conversely, if the conversion value of a convertible security is significantly above its investment value, the market value of the convertible security will be more heavily influenced by fluctuations in the market price of the underlying stock. In that case, the convertible security’s price may be as volatile as that of the common stock. Because both interest rate and market movements can influence its value, a convertible security is not generally as sensitive to interest rates as a similar fixed income security, nor is it generally as sensitive to changes in share price as its underlying stock.
A Fund’s investments in convertible securities, particularly securities that are convertible into securities of an issuer other than the issuer of the convertible security, may be illiquid. A Fund’s investments in convertible securities may at times include securities that have a mandatory conversion
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feature, pursuant to which the securities convert automatically into common stock or other equity securities (of the same or a different issuer) at a specified date and a specified conversion ratio, or that are convertible at the option of the issuer. For issues where the conversion of the security is not at the option of the holder, a Fund may be required to convert the security into the underlying common stock even at times when the value of the underlying common stock or other equity security has declined substantially.
In addition, some convertible securities are often rated below investment-grade or are not rated, and therefore may be considered speculative investments. The credit rating of a company’s convertible securities is generally lower than that of its conventional debt securities. Convertible securities are normally considered “junior” securities—that is, the company usually must pay interest on its conventional corporate debt before it can make payments on its convertible securities. Some convertible securities are particularly sensitive to interest rate changes when their predetermined conversion price is much higher than the issuing company’s common stock.
Corporate Debt Securities
The Funds may invest in corporate debt securities. The broad category of corporate debt securities includes debt issued by companies of all kinds, including those with small-, mid- and large-capitalizations. Corporate debt may be rated investment-grade or below investment-grade and may carry variable or floating rates of interest. Corporate debt securities are fixed income securities issued by businesses to finance their operations, although corporate debt instruments may also include bank loans to companies. Notes, bonds, debentures and commercial paper are the most common types of corporate debt securities, with the primary difference being their maturities and secured or unsecured status. Commercial paper has the shortest term and is usually unsecured.
Because of the wide range of types and maturities of corporate debt securities, as well as the range of creditworthiness of its issuers, corporate debt securities have widely varying potentials for return and risk profiles. Rates on corporate debt securities are set according to prevailing interest rates at the time of the issue, the credit rating of the issuer, the length of the maturity and other terms of the security. For example, commercial paper issued by a large established domestic corporation that is rated investment-grade may have a modest return on principal, but carries relatively limited risk. On the other hand, a long-term corporate note issued by a small non-U.S. corporation from an emerging market country that has not been rated by an NRSRO may have the potential for relatively large returns on principal, but carries a relatively high degree of risk.
Corporate debt securities carry both credit risk and interest rate risk. Credit risk is the risk that a Fund could lose money if the issuer of a corporate debt security is unable to pay interest or repay principal when it’s due. Some corporate debt securities that are rated below investment-grade are generally considered speculative because they present a greater risk of loss, including default, than higher quality debt securities. The credit risk of a particular issuer’s debt security may vary based on its priority for repayment. For example, higher ranking (senior) debt securities have a higher priority than lower ranking (subordinated) securities. This means that the issuer might not make payments on subordinated securities while making payments on senior securities. In addition, in the event of bankruptcy, holders of higher-ranking senior securities may receive amounts otherwise payable to the holders of more junior securities. Interest rate risk is the risk that the value of certain corporate debt securities will tend to fall when interest rates rise. In general, corporate debt securities with longer terms tend to fall more in value when interest rates rise than corporate debt securities with shorter terms. Additionally, corporate debt securities may also be subject to price volatility due to such factors as market interest rates, market perception of the creditworthiness of the issuer and general market liquidity.
In addition, corporate restructurings, such as mergers, leveraged buyouts, takeovers or similar corporate transactions are often financed by an increase in a corporate issuer’s debt securities. As a result of the added debt burden, the credit quality and market value of an issuer’s existing debt securities may decline significantly.
Corporate debt securities and certain other assets held by a Fund may be subject to inflation risk, which is the risk that the real value (i.e., nominal price of the asset adjusted for inflation) of assets or income from investments will be less in the future as inflation decreases the purchasing power and value of money (i.e., as inflation increases, the real value of a Fund’s assets can decline). Inflation rates may change frequently and significantly as a result of various factors, including unexpected shifts in the domestic or global economy and changes in monetary or economic policies (or expectations that these policies may change), and a Fund’s investments may not keep pace with inflation, which would generally
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adversely affect the real value of shareholders’ investment in a Fund. This risk is greater for fixed-income instruments with longer maturities. Deflation risk is the risk that prices throughout the economy decline over time. Deflation may have an adverse effect on the creditworthiness of issuers and may make issuer default more likely, which may result in a decline in the value of a Fund’s assets.
Nuveen Credit Income Fund may invest in certain corporate debt securities that are sold only in privately negotiated transactions that are exempt from registration under U.S. securities laws. See “Restricted Securities” below. The purchase price and subsequent valuation of these securities may reflect a discount from the price at which such securities trade when they are not restricted, because the restriction makes them less liquid. See “Illiquid Investments” below.
Derivatives
Subject to the limitations set forth below under “Limitations on the Use of CFTC-Regulated Futures, Options on Futures and Swaps,” each Fund may use derivative instruments as described below. Generally, a derivative is a financial contract the value of which depends upon, or is derived from, the value of an underlying asset, reference rate or index. Derivatives generally take the form of contracts under which the parties agree to payments between them based upon the performance of a wide variety of underlying references, such as stocks, bonds, loans, commodities, interest rates, currency exchange rates, and various domestic and foreign indices.
The Funds may use derivatives for a variety of reasons, including as a substitute for investing directly in securities and currencies, as an alternative to selling a security short, as part of a hedging strategy (that is, for the purpose of reducing risk to the Fund), to manage the effective duration of a Fund’s portfolio, or for other purposes related to the management of the Funds. Derivatives permit a Fund to increase or decrease the level of risk, or change the character of the risk, to which its portfolio is exposed in much the same way as a Fund can increase or decrease the level of risk, or change the character of the risk, of its portfolio by making investments in specific securities. However, derivatives may entail investment exposures that are greater than their cost would suggest. As a result, a small investment in derivatives could have a large impact on a Fund’s performance.
While transactions in some derivatives may be effected on established exchanges, many other derivatives are privately negotiated and entered into in the over-the-counter (“OTC”) market with a single counterparty. When exchange-traded derivatives are purchased and sold, a clearing agency associated with the exchange stands between each buyer and seller and effectively guarantees performance of each contract, either on a limited basis through a guaranty fund or to the full extent of the clearing agency’s balance sheet. Transactions in OTC derivatives not subject to a clearing requirement have no such protection. Each party to an uncleared OTC derivative bears the risk that its direct counterparty will default. In addition, OTC derivatives are generally less liquid than exchange-traded derivatives because they often can only be closed out with the other party to the transaction.
The use of derivative instruments is subject to applicable regulations of the SEC, the CFTC, various state regulatory authorities and, with respect to exchange-traded derivatives, the several exchanges upon which they are traded. Under Rule 18f-4 under the 1940 Act, a registered investment company’s derivatives exposure, which includes short positions and certain when-issued and delayed-delivery transactions for this purpose, is limited through a value-at-risk test and Rule 18f-4 requires the adoption and implementation of a derivatives risk management program for certain derivatives users. However, subject to certain conditions, limited derivatives users (as defined in Rule 18f-4) are not subject to the full requirements of Rule 18f-4. In connection with adopting Rule 18f-4, the SEC eliminated the asset segregation framework arising from prior SEC guidance for covering derivatives and certain financial instruments. In addition, under Rule 18f-4, a Fund is permitted to invest in when-issued securities, and the transaction will be deemed not to involve a senior security, provided that (i) the Fund intends to physically settle the transaction and (ii) the transaction will settle within 35 days of its trade date (the “Delayed-Settlement Securities Provision”). A Fund may otherwise engage in such transactions that do not meet the conditions of the Delayed-Settlement Securities Provision so long as the Fund treats any such transaction as a “derivatives transaction” for purposes of compliance with the rule. Rule 18f-4 could limit a Fund’s ability to engage in certain derivatives transactions and/or increase the costs of such derivatives transactions, which could adversely affect the value or performance of the Fund. Changes in the value of a derivative may also create margin delivery or settlement payment obligations for a Fund. In addition, a Fund’s ability to use derivative instruments may be limited by tax considerations.
The particular derivative instruments the Funds can use are described below. A Fund’s portfolio managers may decide not to employ some or all of these instruments, and there is no assurance that any
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derivatives strategy used by a Fund will succeed. The Funds may employ new derivative instruments and strategies when they are developed, if those investment methods are consistent with the particular Fund’s investment objective and are permissible under applicable regulations governing the Fund.
Options Transactions
The Funds may purchase put and call options on specific securities (including groups or “baskets” of specific securities), interest rates, stock indices, bond indices, commodity indices, and/or foreign currencies.
Options on Securities. The Funds may purchase put and call options on securities. A put option on a security gives the purchaser of the option the right (but not the obligation) to sell, and the writer of the option the obligation to buy, the underlying security at a stated price (the “exercise price”) at any time before the option expires. A call option on a security gives the purchaser the right (but not the obligation) to buy, and the writer the obligation to sell, the underlying security at the exercise price at any time before the option expires. The purchase price for a put or call option is the “premium” paid by the purchaser for the right to sell or buy.
A Fund may purchase put options to hedge against a decline in the value of its portfolio. By using put options in this way, a Fund would reduce any profit it might otherwise have realized in the underlying security by the amount of the premium paid for the put option and by transaction costs. In similar fashion, a Fund may purchase call options to protect against an increase in the price of securities that the Fund anticipates purchasing in the future, a practice sometimes referred to as “anticipatory hedging.” The premium paid for the call option plus any transaction costs will reduce the benefit, if any, realized by the Fund upon exercise of the option, and, unless the price of the underlying security rises sufficiently, the option may expire unexercised.
Options on Interest Rates and Indices. The Funds may purchase put and call options on interest rates and on stock, bond and commodity indices. An option on interest rates or on an index gives the holder the right to receive, upon exercise of the option, an amount of cash if the closing value of the underlying interest rate or index is greater than, in the case of a call, or less than, in the case of a put, the exercise price of the option. This amount of cash is equal to the difference between the exercise-settlement value of the interest rate option or the closing price of the index and the exercise price of the option expressed in dollars times a specified multiple (the “multiplier”). The writer of the option is obligated, for the premium received, to make delivery of this amount. Settlements for interest rate and index options are always in cash.
Options on Currencies. The Funds may purchase put and call options on foreign currencies. A foreign currency option provides the option buyer with the right to buy or sell a stated amount of foreign currency at the exercise price at a specified date or during the option period. A call option gives its owner the right, but not the obligation, to buy the currency, while a put option gives its owner the right, but not the obligation, to sell the currency. The option seller (writer) is obligated to fulfill the terms of the option sold if it is exercised. However, either seller or buyer may close its position during the option period in the secondary market for such options at any time prior to expiration.
A foreign currency call option rises in value if the underlying currency appreciates. Conversely, a foreign currency put option rises in value if the underlying currency depreciates. While purchasing a foreign currency option may protect a Fund against an adverse movement in the value of a foreign currency, it would limit the gain which might result from a favorable movement in the value of the currency. For example, if the Fund were holding securities denominated in an appreciating foreign currency and had purchased a foreign currency put to hedge against a decline in the value of the currency, it would not have to exercise its put. In such an event, however, the amount of the Fund’s gain would be offset in part by the premium paid for the option. Similarly, if the Fund entered into a contract to purchase a security denominated in a foreign currency and purchased a foreign currency call to hedge against a rise in the value of the currency between the date of purchase and the settlement date, the Fund would not need to exercise its call if the currency instead depreciated in value. In such a case, the Fund could acquire the amount of foreign currency needed for settlement in the spot market at a lower price than the exercise price of the option.
Expiration or Exercise of Options. If an option purchased by a Fund expires unexercised, the Fund realizes a capital loss equal to the premium paid. Prior to the earlier of exercise or expiration, an exchange traded option may be closed out by an offsetting purchase or sale of an option of the same series (type, exchange, underlying security, currency or index, exercise price, and expiration). There can
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be no assurance, however, that a closing purchase or sale transaction can be effected when a Fund desires.
The Funds may sell put or call options it has previously purchased, which could result in a net gain or loss depending on whether the amount realized on the sale is more or less than the premium and other transaction costs paid on the put or call option which is sold. Prior to exercise or expiration, an option may be closed out by an offsetting purchase or sale of an option of the same series. A Fund will realize a capital gain from a closing purchase transaction if the cost of the closing option is less than the premium received from writing the option, or, if it is more, the Fund will realize a capital loss. If the premium received from a closing sale transaction is more than the premium paid to purchase the option, the Fund will realize a capital gain or, if it is less, the Fund will realize a capital loss. The principal factors affecting the market value of a put or a call option include supply and demand, interest rates, the current market price of the underlying security, currency or index in relation to the exercise price of the option, the volatility of the underlying security, currency or index, and the time remaining until the expiration date.
Futures
The Funds may engage in futures transactions. The Funds may buy and sell futures contracts that relate to (1) interest rates, (2) debt securities, (3) bond indices, (4) foreign currencies, (5) stock indices, and (6) individual stocks. The Funds may only enter into futures contracts which are standardized and traded on a U.S. or foreign exchange, board of trade or similar entity, or quoted on an automated quotation system.
A futures contract is an agreement between two parties to buy and sell a security, index, interest rate or currency (each a “financial instrument”) for a set price on a future date. Certain futures contracts, such as futures contracts relating to individual securities, call for making or taking delivery of the underlying financial instrument. However, these contracts generally are closed out before delivery by entering into an offsetting purchase or sale of a matching futures contract. Other futures contracts, such as futures contracts on interest rates and indices, do not call for making or taking delivery of the underlying financial instrument, but rather are agreements pursuant to which two parties agree to take or make delivery of an amount of cash equal to the difference between the value of the financial instrument at the close of the last trading day of the contract and the price at which the contract was originally written. These contracts also may be settled by entering into an offsetting futures contract.
Unlike when a Fund purchases or sells a security, no price is paid or received by the Fund upon the purchase or sale of a futures contract. Initially, a Fund will be required to deposit with its futures broker (also known as a futures commission merchant (“FCM”)) an amount of cash or securities equal to a specified percentage of the contract amount. This amount is known as initial margin. The margin deposit is intended to ensure completion of the contract. Minimum initial margin requirements are established by the futures exchanges and may be revised. In addition, FCMs may establish margin deposit requirements that are higher than the exchange minimums. Cash held as margin is generally invested by the FCM in high-quality instruments permitted under CFTC regulations, with returns retained by the FCM and interest paid to the Fund on the cash at an agreed-upon rate. A Fund will also receive any interest paid from coupon-bearing securities, such as Treasury securities, held in margin accounts. Subsequent payments to and from the FCM, called variation margin, will be made on a daily basis as the price of the underlying financial instrument fluctuates, making the futures contract more or less valuable, a process known as marking the contract to market. Changes in variation margin are recorded by a Fund as unrealized gains or losses. At any time prior to expiration of the futures contract, a Fund may elect to close the position by taking an opposite position that will operate to terminate its position in the futures contract. A final determination of variation margin is then made, additional cash is required to be paid by or released to the Fund, and the Fund realizes a gain or loss. In the event of the bankruptcy or insolvency of an FCM that holds margin on behalf of a Fund, the Fund may be entitled to the return of margin owed to it only in proportion to the amount received by the FCM’s other customers, potentially resulting in losses to the Fund. Futures transactions also involve brokerage costs.
Most U.S. futures exchanges limit the amount of fluctuation permitted in futures contract prices during a single trading day. The daily limit establishes the maximum amount that the price of a futures contract may vary either up or down from the previous day’s settlement price at the end of a trading session. Once the daily limit has been reached in a particular type of futures contract, no trades may be made on that day at a price beyond that limit. The daily limit governs only price movement during a particular trading day and therefore does not limit potential losses, because the limit may prevent the liquidation of unfavorable positions. Futures contract prices have occasionally moved to the daily limit for several
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consecutive trading days with little or no trading, thereby preventing prompt liquidation of futures positions and subjecting some futures traders to substantial losses.
Options on Futures
The Funds may purchase or write put and call options on futures contracts and write straddles, which consist of a call and put option on the same futures contract. A futures option gives the holder the right, in return for the premium paid, to assume a long position (call) or short position (put) in a futures contract at a specified exercise price prior to the expiration of the option. Upon exercise of a call option, the holder acquires a long position in the futures contract and the writer is assigned the opposite short position. In the case of a put option, the opposite is true. Prior to exercise or expiration, a futures option may be closed out by an offsetting purchase or sale of a futures option of the same series.
A Fund may use options on futures contracts in connection with hedging strategies. The writing of a call option or the purchasing of a put option on a futures contract constitutes a partial hedge against declining prices of the securities which are deliverable upon exercise of the futures contract. If the futures price at expiration of a written call option is below the exercise price, a Fund will retain the full amount of the option premium which provides a partial hedge against any decline that may have occurred in the Fund’s holdings of securities. If the futures price when the option is exercised is above the exercise price, however, a Fund will incur a loss, which may be offset, in whole or in part, by the increase in the value of the securities held by the Fund that were being hedged. Writing a put option or purchasing a call option on a futures contract serves as a partial hedge against an increase in the value of the securities a Fund intends to acquire.
As with investments in futures contracts, each Fund is required to deposit and maintain margin with respect to put and call options on futures contracts written by it.
Forward Currency Contracts and other Foreign Currency Transactions
The Funds may enter into forward currency contracts. A forward currency contract involves an obligation to purchase or sell a specific currency at a future date, which may be any fixed number of days from the date of the contract agreed upon by the parties, at a price set at the time of the contract. These contracts are traded directly between currency traders (usually large commercial banks) and their customers. Unlike futures contracts, which are standardized contracts, forward contracts can be specifically drawn to meet the needs of the parties that enter into them. The parties to a forward currency contract may agree to offset or terminate the contract before its maturity, or may hold the contract to maturity and complete the contemplated exchange. Because forward contracts are not traded on an exchange, the Funds are subject to the credit and performance risk of the counterparties to such contracts.
The following, among others, are types of currency management strategies involving forward contracts that may be used by the Funds. These Funds also may use currency futures contracts and options thereon, put and call options on foreign currencies and currency swaps for the same purposes.
Transaction Hedges. When a Fund enters into a contract for the purchase or sale of a security denominated in a foreign currency, or when it anticipates receiving dividend payments in a foreign currency, the Fund might wish to lock in the U.S. dollar price of the security or the U.S. dollar equivalent of the dividend payments. To do so, the Fund could enter into a forward contract for the purchase or sale of the amount of foreign currency involved in the underlying transaction at a fixed amount of U.S. dollars per unit of the foreign currency. This is known as a “transaction hedge.” A transaction hedge will protect a Fund against a loss from an adverse change in the currency exchange rate during the period between the date on which the security is purchased or sold or on which the payment is declared, and the date on which the payment is made or received. Forward contracts to purchase or sell a foreign currency may also be used by a Fund in anticipation of future purchases or sales of securities denominated in a foreign currency, even if the specific investments have not yet been selected by the Sub-Adviser. This strategy is sometimes referred to as “anticipatory hedging.”
Position Hedges. A Fund could also use forward contracts to lock in the U.S. dollar value of portfolio positions. This is known as a “position hedge.” When a Fund believes that a foreign currency might suffer a substantial decline against the U.S. dollar, it could enter into a forward contract to sell an amount of that foreign currency approximating the value of some or all of the Fund’s portfolio securities denominated in that foreign currency. When a Fund believes that the U.S. dollar might suffer a substantial decline against a foreign currency, it could enter into a forward contract to buy that foreign currency for a fixed dollar amount. Alternatively, a Fund could enter into a forward contract to sell a different foreign currency for a
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fixed U.S. dollar amount if the Fund’s portfolio managers believe that the U.S. dollar value of that foreign currency will fall whenever there is a decline in the U.S. dollar value of the currency in which portfolio securities of the Fund are denominated. This is referred to as a “cross hedge.”
Shifting Currency Exposure. A Fund may also enter into forward contracts to shift its investment exposure from one currency into another. This may include shifting exposure from U.S. dollars to foreign currency or from one foreign currency to another foreign currency. This strategy tends to limit exposure to the currency sold, and increase exposure to the currency that is purchased, much as if a Fund had sold a security denominated in one currency and purchased an equivalent security denominated in another currency.
Swap Transactions
The Funds may enter into interest rate, currency, total return and credit default swap agreements. The Funds may also enter into options on the foregoing types of swap agreements (“swap options”) and in bonds issued by special purpose entities that are backed by a pool of swaps.
A Fund may enter into swap transactions for any purpose consistent with its investment objective and strategies, such as for the purpose of attempting to obtain or preserve a particular return or spread at a lower cost than obtaining a return or spread through purchases and/or sales of instruments in other markets, to protect against currency fluctuations, as a duration management technique, to protect against an increase in the price of securities the Fund anticipates purchasing at a later date, to reduce risk arising from the ownership of a particular instrument, or to gain exposure to certain securities, reference rates, sectors or markets.
Swap agreements are two party contracts entered into primarily by institutional investors for a specified period of time. In a standard swap transaction, two parties agree to exchange the returns (or differentials in rates of return) earned or realized on a particular predetermined asset, reference rate or index. The gross returns to be exchanged or swapped between the parties are generally calculated with respect to a notional amount, e.g., the return on or increase in value of a particular dollar amount invested at a particular interest rate or in a basket of securities representing a particular index. The notional amount of the swap agreement generally is only used as a basis upon which to calculate the obligations that the parties to the swap agreement have agreed to exchange. A Fund’s current obligations under a net swap agreement will be accrued daily (offset against any amounts owed to the Fund).
Interest Rate Swaps. Interest rate swaps are financial instruments that involve the exchange of one type of interest rate for another type of interest rate cash flow on specified dates in the future. Some of the different types of interest rate swaps are “fixed-for-floating rate swaps,” “termed basis swaps” and “index amortizing swaps.” Fixed-for-floating rate swaps involve the exchange of fixed interest rate cash flows for floating rate cash flows. Termed basis swaps entail cash flows to both parties based on floating interest rates, where the interest rate indices are different. Index amortizing swaps are typically fixed-for-floating swaps where the notional amount changes if certain conditions are met. Like a traditional investment in a debt security, a Fund could lose money by investing in an interest rate swap if interest rates change adversely.
Currency Swaps. A currency swap is an agreement between two parties in which one party agrees to make interest rate payments in one currency and the other promises to make interest rate payments in another currency. A Fund may enter into a currency swap when it has one currency and desires a different currency. Typically the interest rates that determine the currency swap payments are fixed, although occasionally one or both parties may pay a floating rate of interest. Unlike an interest rate swap, however, the principal amounts are exchanged at the beginning of the contract and returned at the end of the contract. Changes in non-U.S. exchange rates and changes in interest rates may negatively affect currency swaps.
Total Return Swaps. In a total return swap, one party agrees to pay the other the “total return” of a defined underlying asset during a specified period, in return for periodic payments based on a fixed or variable interest rate or the total return from other underlying assets. A total return swap may be applied to any underlying asset but is most commonly used with equity indices, single stocks, bonds and defined baskets of loans and mortgages. A Fund might enter into a total return swap involving an underlying index or basket of securities to create exposure to a potentially widely-diversified range of securities in a single trade. An index total return swap can be used by the portfolio managers to assume risk, without the complications of buying the component securities from what may not always be the most liquid of markets.
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Credit Default Swaps. A credit default swap is a bilateral contract that enables an investor to buy or sell protection against a defined-issuer credit event. A Fund may enter into credit default swap agreements either as a buyer or a seller. A Fund may buy protection to attempt to mitigate the risk of default or credit quality deterioration in one or more of its individual holdings or in a segment of the fixed income securities market to which it has exposure, or to take a “short” position in individual bonds or market segments which it does not own. A Fund may sell protection in an attempt to gain exposure to the credit quality characteristics of particular bonds or market segments without investing directly in those bonds or market segments.
As the buyer of protection in a credit default swap, a Fund will pay a premium (by means of an upfront payment or a periodic stream of payments over the term of the agreement) in return for the right to deliver a referenced bond or group of bonds to the protection seller and receive the full notional or par value (or other agreed upon value) upon a default (or similar event) by the issuer(s) of the underlying referenced obligation(s). If no default occurs, the protection seller would keep the stream of payments and would have no further obligation to the Fund. Thus, the cost to the Fund would be the premium paid with respect to the agreement. If a credit event occurs, however, the Fund may elect to receive the full notional value of the swap in exchange for an equal face amount of deliverable obligations of the reference entity that may have little or no value. The Fund bears the risk that the protection seller may fail to satisfy its payment obligations.
If a Fund is a seller of protection in a credit default swap and no credit event occurs, the Fund would generally receive an up-front payment or a periodic stream of payments over the term of the swap. If a credit event occurs, however, generally the Fund would have to pay the buyer the full notional value of the swap in exchange for an equal face amount of deliverable obligations of the reference entity that may have little or no value. As the protection seller, the Fund effectively adds economic leverage to its portfolio because, in addition to being subject to investment exposure on its total net assets, the Fund is subject to investment exposure on the notional amount of the swap. Thus, the Fund bears the same risk as it would by buying the reference obligations directly, plus the additional risks related to obtaining investment exposure through a derivative instrument discussed below under “Risks Associated with Swap Transactions.”
Swap Options. A swap option is a contract that gives a counterparty the right (but not the obligation), in return for payment of a premium, to enter into a new swap agreement or to shorten, extend, cancel, or otherwise modify an existing swap agreement at some designated future time on specified terms. A cash-settled option on a swap gives the purchaser the right, in return for the premium paid, to receive an amount of cash equal to the value of the underlying swap as of the exercise date. A Fund may write (sell) and purchase put and call swap options. Depending on the terms of the particular option agreement, a Fund generally will incur a greater degree of risk when it writes a swap option than when it purchases a swap option. When a Fund purchases a swap option, it risks losing only the amount of the premium it has paid should it decide to let the option expire unexercised. However, when a Fund writes a swap option, upon exercise of the option the Fund will become obligated according to the terms of the underlying agreement.
Risks Associated with Swap Transactions. The use of swap transactions is a highly specialized activity which involves strategies and risks different from those associated with ordinary portfolio security transactions. If the Sub-Adviser is incorrect in its forecasts of default risks, market spreads or other applicable factors the investment performance of a Fund would diminish compared with what it would have been if these techniques were not used. As the protection seller in a credit default swap, a Fund effectively adds economic leverage to its portfolio because, in addition to being subject to investment exposure on its total net assets, the Fund is subject to investment exposure on the notional amount of the swap. A Fund may only close out a swap or other two-party contract with its particular counterparty, and may only transfer a position with the consent of that counterparty. In addition, the price at which a Fund may close out such a two party contract may not correlate with the price change in the underlying reference asset. If the counterparty defaults, a Fund will have contractual remedies, but there can be no assurance that the counterparty will be able to meet its contractual obligations or that the Fund will succeed in enforcing its rights. It also is possible that developments in the derivatives market, including potential government regulation, could adversely affect a Fund’s ability to terminate existing swap or other agreements or to realize amounts to be received under such agreements.
Interest Rate Caps, Collars and Floors
The Funds may enter into interest rate caps, floors and collars. Caps and floors have an effect similar to buying or writing options. In a typical cap or floor agreement, one party agrees to make payments only
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under specified circumstances, usually in return for payment of a fee by the other party. For example, the buyer of an interest rate cap obtains the right to receive payments to the extent that a specified interest rate exceeds an agreed-upon level. The seller of an interest rate floor is obligated to make payments to the extent that a specified interest rate falls below an agreed-upon level. An interest rate collar involves selling a cap and purchasing a floor or vice versa to protect a Fund against interest rate movements exceeding given minimum or maximum levels.
Limitations on the Use of CFTC-Regulated Futures, Options on Futures and Swaps
Each Fund will limit its direct investments in CFTC-regulated futures, options on futures and swaps (“CFTC Derivatives”) to the extent necessary for the Adviser to claim the exclusion from regulation as a commodity pool operator with respect to the Fund under CFTC Rule 4.5, as such rule may be amended from time to time. Under Rule 4.5 as currently in effect, each Fund will limit its trading activity in CFTC Derivatives (excluding activity for “bona fide hedging purposes,” as defined by the CFTC) such that it meets one of the following tests:
· Aggregate initial margin and premiums required to establish its positions in CFTC Derivatives do not exceed 5% of the liquidation value of the Fund’s portfolio, after taking into account unrealized profits and losses on such positions; or
· Aggregate net notional value of its positions in CFTC Derivatives does not exceed 100% of the liquidation value of the Fund’s portfolio, after taking into account unrealized profits and losses on such positions.
With respect to each Fund, the Adviser has filed a notice of eligibility for exclusion from the definition of the term commodity pool operator under the Commodity Exchange Act and therefore is not subject to registration or regulation as a commodity pool operator thereunder.
The requirements for qualification as a regulated investment company may also limit the extent to which each Fund may invest in CFTC Derivatives. See “Tax Matters—Qualification as a Regulated Investment Company.”
Federal Income Tax Treatment of Futures Contracts and Options
Each Fund’s transactions in futures contracts and options will be subject to special provisions of the Code, that, among other things, may affect the character of gains and losses realized by a Fund (i.e., may affect whether gains or losses are ordinary or capital, or short-term or long-term), may accelerate recognition of income to a Fund and may defer Fund losses. These rules could, therefore, affect the character, amount and timing of distributions to shareholders. These provisions also (a) will require a Fund to mark-to-market certain types of the positions in its portfolio (i.e., treat them as if they were closed out) and (b) may cause a Fund to recognize income without receiving cash with which to make distributions in amounts necessary to satisfy the 90% distribution requirement for qualifying to be taxed as a regulated investment company and the distribution requirement for avoiding excise taxes.
Risks and Special Considerations Concerning Derivatives
The use of derivative instruments involves certain general risks and considerations as described below.
1) Market Risk. Market risk is the risk that the value of the underlying assets may go up or down. Adverse movements in the value of an underlying asset can expose a Fund to losses. The successful use of derivative instruments depends upon a variety of factors, particularly the portfolio managers' ability to predict movements in the relevant markets, which may require different skills than predicting changes in the prices of individual securities. There can be no assurance that any particular strategy adopted will succeed.
2) Counterparty Risk. Counterparty risk is the risk that a loss may be sustained as a result of the failure of a counterparty to comply with the terms of a derivative instrument. The counterparty risk for exchange-traded derivatives is generally less than for OTC derivatives, since generally a clearing agency, which is the issuer or counterparty to each exchange-traded instrument, provides a guarantee of performance. For many OTC instruments, there is no similar clearing agency guarantee and there is less regulation or supervision of transactions. In all transactions, a Fund will bear the risk that the counterparty will default, and this could result in a loss of the expected benefit of the derivative transactions and possibly other losses to the Fund. A Fund will enter into derivatives transactions only with counterparties that its portfolio managers reasonably believe are capable of performing under the contract.
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3) Correlation Risk. Correlation risk is the risk that there might be an imperfect correlation, or even no correlation, between price movements of a derivative instrument and price movements of investments being hedged. When a derivative transaction is used to completely hedge another position, changes in the market value of the combined position (the derivative instrument plus the position being hedged) result from an imperfect correlation between the price movements of the two instruments. With a perfect hedge, the value of the combined position remains unchanged with any change in the price of the underlying asset. With an imperfect hedge, the value of the derivative instrument and its hedge are not perfectly correlated. For example, if the value of a derivative instrument used in a short hedge (such as writing a call option, buying a put option or selling a futures contract) increased by less than the decline in value of the hedged investments, the hedge would not be perfectly correlated. This might occur due to factors unrelated to the value of the investments being hedged, such as speculative or other pressures on the markets in which these instruments are traded. The effectiveness of hedges using instruments on indices will depend, in part, on the degree of correlation between price movements in the index and the price movements in the investments being hedged.
4) Liquidity Risk. Liquidity risk is the risk that a derivative instrument cannot be sold, closed out or replaced quickly at or very close to its fundamental value. Generally, exchange contracts are very liquid because the exchange clearinghouse is the counterparty of every contract. OTC transactions are less liquid than exchange-traded derivatives since they often can only be closed out with the other party to the transaction. A Fund might maintain segregated accounts and/or make margin payments when it takes positions in derivative instruments involving obligations to third parties (i.e., instruments other than purchase options). If a Fund is unable to close out its positions in such instruments, it might be required to continue to maintain such assets or accounts or make such payments until the position expires, matures or is closed out. These requirements might impair a Fund’s ability to sell a security or make an investment at a time when it would otherwise be favorable to do so, or require that the Fund sell a portfolio security at a disadvantageous time. A Fund’s ability to sell or close out a position in an instrument prior to expiration or maturity depends upon the existence of a liquid secondary market or, in the absence of such a market, the ability and willingness of the counterparty to enter into a transaction closing out the position. There is no assurance that any derivatives position can be sold or closed out at a time and price that is favorable to a Fund. A Fund must comply with the SEC rule related to the use of derivatives and certain other transactions when engaging in the transactions discussed above. See “Derivatives” above.
5) Legal Risk. Legal risk is the risk of loss caused by the unenforceability of a party’s obligations under the derivative. While a party seeking price certainty agrees to surrender the potential upside in exchange for downside protection, the party taking the risk is looking for a positive payoff. Despite this voluntary assumption of risk, a counterparty that has lost money in a derivative transaction may try to avoid payment by exploiting various legal uncertainties about certain derivative products.
6) Systemic or “Interconnection” Risk. Systemic or interconnection risk is the risk that a disruption in the financial markets will cause difficulties for all market participants. In other words, a disruption in one market will spill over into other markets, perhaps creating a chain reaction. Much of the OTC derivatives market takes place among the OTC dealers themselves, thus creating a large interconnected web of financial obligations. This interconnectedness raises the possibility that a default by one large dealer could create losses for other dealers and destabilize the entire market for OTC derivative instruments.
7) Leverage Risk. Leverage risk is the risk that a Fund may be more volatile than if it had not been leveraged due to leverage’s tendency to exaggerate the effect of any increase or decrease in the value of the Fund’s portfolio securities. The use of leverage may also cause the Fund to liquidate portfolio positions when it may not be advantageous to do so to satisfy its obligations or to meet segregation requirements.
8) Regulatory Risk. The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (the “Dodd-Frank Act”) required the SEC, the CFTC, and other federal financial regulators to develop an expanded regulatory framework for derivatives. Certain of the implementing regulations have not yet been finalized. Thus, the ultimate impact of the rulemakings is still unknown, but has the potential to increase the costs of using derivatives, may limit the availability of some forms of derivatives or Nuveen Asset Management’s or a Fund’s ability to use derivatives in pursuit of its investment objectives, and may adversely affect the performance of some derivative instruments used. Moreover, governmental authorities outside of the U.S. have passed, proposed or may propose in the future legislation similar to
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the Dodd-Frank Act, which could increase the costs of participating in, or otherwise adversely impact the liquidity of, the swaps markets. Accordingly, the ultimate impact of the Dodd-Frank Act, including on the derivative instruments in which the Funds may invest, is not yet certain.
Distressed and Defaulted Securities in a Workout Arrangement
In the event that a Fund holds distressed or defaulted securities of an issuer, the Sub-Adviser may determine that it is in the best interest of Fund shareholders to pursue a workout arrangement with the issuer, which may involve making loans to the issuer, purchasing bonds, equity or other interests of the issuer, or taking other related or similar steps involving the investment of additional monies.
A Fund may make a loan to an entity suffering severe economic distress, oftentimes in or near bankruptcy. It is generally more time-consuming and expensive for a troubled entity to issue additional bonds, instead of borrowing, as a means of obtaining liquidity in times of severe financial distress. Making a loan to such an entity may allow the entity to remain a "going concern" and enable it to eventually both repay the loan as well as be in better position to pay interest and principal on the pre-existing securities held by a Fund. Absent a loan, a Fund may be forced to liquidate the entity's assets, which can reduce recovery value.
In the course of pursuing such a workout arrangement, the Sub-Adviser may acquire material non-public information regarding an issuer, which may limit its ability to purchase or sell securities or otherwise to participate in an investment opportunity for a Fund.
Dollar Rolls
The Funds may enter into mortgage “dollar rolls” in which a Fund sells mortgage-backed securities and simultaneously contracts with the same counterparty to repurchase similar (same type, coupon and maturity) but not identical securities on a specified future date. During the period between the sale and repurchase (the “roll period”), a Fund forgoes principal and interest paid on the mortgage-backed securities. However, a Fund would benefit to the extent of any difference between the price received for the securities sold and the lower forward price for the future purchase (often referred to as the “drop”) plus any fee income received. Unless such benefits exceed the income, capital appreciation and gain or loss due to mortgage prepayments that would have been realized on the securities sold as part of the mortgage dollar roll, the investment performance of a Fund will be less than what the performance would have been without the use of the mortgage dollar roll.
Exchange-Traded Funds
Nuveen Credit Income Fund may invest in exchange-traded funds (“ETFs”). ETFs are a type of index fund bought and sold on a securities exchange. An ETF trades like common stock and represents a portfolio of securities designed to track a particular market index. The Fund could purchase an ETF to gain exposure to all or a portion of the U.S. market, a foreign market, a region, a commodity, a currency, or to any other index that an ETF tracks. The risks of owning an ETF generally reflect the risks of owning the underlying securities they are designed to track, although lack of liquidity in an ETF could result in it being more volatile and ETFs have management fees that increase their costs. An ETF may fail to accurately track the returns of the market segment or index that it is designed to track, and the price of an ETF’s shares may fluctuate. In addition, because they, unlike traditional mutual funds, are traded on an exchange, ETFs are subject to the following risks: (i) the performance of the ETF may not replicate the performance of the underlying index that it is designed to track; (ii) the market price of the ETF’s shares may trade at a premium or discount to the ETF’s net asset value; (iii) an active trading market for an ETF may not develop or be maintained; and (iv) there is no assurance that the requirements of the exchange necessary to maintain the listing of the ETF will continue to be met or remain unchanged. Trading in an ETF may be halted if the trading in one or more of the ETF’s underlying securities is halted, which could result in the ETF being more volatile. In the event substantial market or other disruptions affecting ETFs should occur in the future, the liquidity and value of the Fund’s shares could also be substantially and adversely affected.
Foreign Securities
The Funds may invest in foreign securities payable in either U.S. dollars or foreign currencies. These securities may include securities issued or guaranteed by (i) the Government of Canada, any Canadian Province or any instrumentality and political subdivision thereof; (ii) any other foreign government agency or instrumentality; (iii) foreign subsidiaries of U.S. corporations; and (iv) other foreign issuers (each Fund will require that such issuers to have total capital and surplus at the time of investment of at least $1 billion).
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Investment in foreign securities is subject to special investment risks that differ in some respects from those related to investments in securities of U.S. domestic issuers. These risks include political, social or economic instability in the country of the issuer, the difficulty of predicting international trade patterns, the possibility of the imposition of exchange controls, expropriation, limits on removal of currency or other assets, nationalization of assets, foreign withholding and income taxation, and foreign trading practices (including higher trading commissions, custodial charges and delayed settlements). Foreign securities also may be subject to greater fluctuations in price than securities issued by U.S. corporations. The principal markets on which these securities trade may have less volume and liquidity, and may be more volatile, than securities markets in the United States.
In addition, there may be less publicly available information about a foreign company than about a U.S. domiciled company. Foreign companies generally are not subject to uniform accounting, auditing and financial reporting standards comparable to those applicable to U.S. domestic companies. There is also generally less government regulation of securities exchanges, brokers and listed companies abroad than in the United States. Confiscatory taxation or diplomatic developments could also affect investment in those countries. In addition, foreign branches of U.S. banks, foreign banks and foreign issuers may be subject to less stringent reserve requirements and to different accounting, auditing, reporting, and record keeping standards than those applicable to domestic branches of U.S. banks and U.S. domestic issuers. Securities transactions conducted outside the United States may not involve a clearing mechanism and related guarantees, and are subject to the risk of governmental actions affecting trading in, or the prices of, non-U.S. securities, currencies and other instruments. The value of such positions also could be adversely affected by (i) other complex non-U.S. political, legal and economic factors, (ii) delays in a Fund’s ability to act upon economic events occurring in non-U.S. markets during non-business hours in the United States, (iv) the imposition of different exercise and settlement terms and procedures and the margin requirements than in the United States, (v) currency exchange rate changes, and (vi) lower trading volume and liquidity.
In considering whether to invest in the securities of a non-U.S. company, the portfolio managers consider such factors as the characteristics of the particular company, differences between economic trends, and the performance of securities markets in the United States and other countries. The portfolio managers also consider factors relating to the general economic, governmental and social conditions of the country or countries where the company is located.
Emerging Markets. Each Fund may invest in securities issued by governmental and corporate issuers that are located in emerging market countries. Investments in securities of issuers in emerging market countries may be subject to potentially higher risks than investments in developed countries. These risks include (i) less social, political and economic stability, which may include armed conflicts; (ii) the small current size of the markets for such securities and the currently low or nonexistent volume of trading, which may result in a lack of liquidity and in greater price volatility; (iii) certain national policies which may restrict a Fund’s investment opportunities, including restrictions on investment in issuers or industries deemed sensitive to national interests; (iv) foreign taxation; (v) the absence of developed structures governing private or foreign investment or allowing for judicial redress for injury to private property; (vi) the limited development and recent emergence, in certain countries, of a capital market structure or market-oriented economy; (vii) less stringent regulation of accounting, auditing, financial reporting, recordkeeping and securities regulation; and (viii) the possibility that recent favorable economic developments in certain countries may be slowed or reversed by unanticipated political or social events in such countries. Additionally, the degree of cooperation between issuers in emerging market countries with foreign and U.S. financial regulators may vary significantly. The type and severity of sanctions and other similar measures, including counter sanctions and other retaliatory actions, that may be imposed could vary broadly in scope, and their impact is highly uncertain. The imposition of sanctions could, among other things, cause a decline in the value and/or liquidity of securities issued by the sanctioned country or companies located in or economically tied to the sanctioned country and increase market volatility and disruption in the sanctioned country and throughout the world. Sanctions and other similar measures could limit or prevent a Fund from buying and selling securities (in the sanctioned country and other markets), significantly delay or prevent the settlement of securities transactions, and significantly impact the Fund’s liquidity and performance. All of the risks of investing in non-U.S. securities described above are heightened by investing in emerging markets countries.
Certain countries, which do not have market economies, are characterized by an absence of developed legal structures governing private and foreign investments and private property. Certain countries require governmental approval prior to investments by foreign persons, or limit the amount of
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investment by foreign persons in a particular company, or limit the investment of foreign persons to only a specific class of securities of a company that may have less advantageous terms than securities of the company available for purchase by nationals.
Authoritarian governments in certain countries may require that a governmental or quasi- governmental authority act as custodian of a Fund’s assets invested in such country. To the extent such governmental or quasi-governmental authorities do not satisfy the requirements of the 1940 Act to act as foreign custodians of the Fund’s cash and securities, the Fund’s investment in such countries may be limited or may be required to be effected through intermediaries. The risk of loss through governmental confiscation may be increased in such countries.
Depositary Receipts. The Funds’ investments in foreign securities may include investment in depositary receipts, including American Depositary Receipts (“ADRs”), European Depositary Receipts (“EDRs”) and Global Depositary Receipts (“GDRs”). U.S. dollar-denominated ADRs, which are traded in the United States on exchanges or over-the-counter, are issued by domestic banks. ADRs represent the right to receive securities of foreign issuers deposited in a domestic bank or a correspondent bank. ADRs do not eliminate all the risk inherent in investing in the securities of foreign issuers. However, by investing in ADRs rather than directly in foreign issuers’ stock, a Fund can avoid currency risks during the settlement period for either purchases or sales. In general, there is a large, liquid market in the United States for many ADRs. The information available for ADRs is subject to the accounting, auditing and financial reporting standards of the domestic market or exchange on which they are traded, which standards are more uniform and more exacting than those to which many foreign issuers may be subject. The Funds may also invest in EDRs, GDRs and in other similar instruments representing securities of foreign companies. EDRs and GDRs are securities that are typically issued by foreign banks or foreign trust companies, although U.S. banks or U.S. trust companies may issue them. EDRs and GDRs are structured similarly to the arrangements of ADRs. EDRs, in bearer form, are designed for use in European securities markets and are not necessarily denominated in the currency of the underlying security.
Certain depositary receipts, typically those denominated as unsponsored, require the holders thereof to bear most of the costs of the facilities while issuers of sponsored facilities normally pay more of the costs thereof. The depository of an unsponsored facility frequently is under no obligation to distribute shareholder communications received from the issuer of the deposited securities or to pass through the voting rights to facility holders in respect to the deposited securities, whereas the depository of a sponsored facility typically distributes shareholder communications and passes through voting rights.
Sovereign Debt. The Funds’ investments in foreign securities may include investment in sovereign debt. Sovereign debt instruments are subject to the risk that a governmental entity may delay or refuse to pay interest or repay principal on its sovereign debt. This may be due to, for example, cash flow problems, insufficient foreign currency reserves, political considerations, the relative size of the governmental entity’s debt position in relation to the economy or the failure to put in place economic reforms required by the International Monetary Fund or other multilateral agencies. If a governmental entity defaults, it may ask for more time in which to pay or for further loans. There is no legal process for collecting sovereign debt that a government does not pay nor are there bankruptcy proceedings through which all or part of the sovereign debt that a governmental entity has not repaid may be collected.
Brady Bonds. The Funds may invest in U.S. dollar-denominated “Brady Bonds.” Brady Bonds are created through the exchange of existing commercial bank loans to public and private entities in certain emerging markets for new obligations in connection with debt restructurings. These foreign debt obligations, which may be fixed rate par bonds or floating rate discount bonds, are generally collateralized in full as to repayment of principal at maturity by U.S. Treasury zero-coupon obligations that have the same maturity as the Brady Bonds. Brady Bonds can be viewed as having three or four valuation components: (i) the collateralized repayment of principal at final maturity; (ii) the collateralized interest payments; (iii) the uncollateralized interest payments; and (iv) any uncollateralized repayment of principal at maturity. Those uncollateralized amounts constitute what is called the “residual risk.” If there is a default on collateralized Brady Bonds resulting in acceleration of the payment obligations of the issuer, the zero-coupon U.S. Treasury securities held as collateral for the payment of principal will not be distributed to investors, nor will those obligations be sold to distribute the proceeds. The collateral will be held by the collateral agent to the scheduled maturity of the defaulted Brady Bonds. The defaulted bonds will continue to remain outstanding, and the face amount of the collateral will equal the principal payments which would have then been due on the Brady Bonds in the normal course. Because of the residual risk of Brady Bonds and the history of defaults with respect to commercial bank loans by public and private
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entities of countries issuing Brady Bonds, Brady Bonds are considered speculative investments and are subject to the same risks as emerging market securities.
Additional Market Disruption Risk. In late February 2022, Russia launched a large scale military attack on Ukraine. The invasion significantly amplified already existing geopolitical tensions among Russia, Ukraine, Europe, NATO and other western nations, including the U.S. In response to the military action by Russia, various countries, including the U.S., the United Kingdom, and European Union issued broad-ranging economic sanctions against Russia. Such sanctions included, among other things, a prohibition on doing business with certain Russian companies, large financial institutions, officials and oligarchs; a commitment by certain countries and the European Union to remove selected Russian banks from the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications (“SWIFT”), the electronic banking network that connects banks globally; and restrictive measures to prevent the Russian Central Bank from undermining the impact of the sanctions. In particular, U.S. sanctions prohibit any “new investment” in Russia which is defined to include any new purchases of Russian securities. U.S. persons also are required to freeze securities issued by certain Russian entities identified on the List of Specially Designated Nationals, which includes several large publicly traded Russian banks and other companies. Russia has issued various countermeasures that affect the ability of non-Russian persons to trade in Russian securities. Additional sanctions may be imposed in the future. Such sanctions may adversely impact, among other things, the Russian economy and various sectors of the global economy, including but not limited to, the financials, energy, metals and mining, engineering and defense sectors. The sanctions and any related boycotts, tariffs, and financial restrictions imposed on Russia’s government, companies and certain individuals may cause a decline in the value and liquidity of Russian securities; weaken the value of the ruble; downgrade the country’s credit rating; freeze Russian securities and/or funds invested in prohibited assets and impair the ability to trade in Russian securities and/or other assets; and have other adverse consequences on the Russian government, economy, companies and region. Further, several large corporations and U.S. states have announced plans to divest interests or otherwise curtail business dealings with certain Russian businesses.
The ramifications of the hostilities and sanctions, however, may not be limited to Russia and Russian companies but may spill over to and negatively impact other regional and global economic markets (including Europe and the United States), companies in other countries (particularly those that have done business with Russia) and on various sectors, industries and markets for securities and commodities globally, such as oil and natural gas. Accordingly, the actions discussed above and the potential for a wider conflict could increase financial market volatility, cause severe negative effects on regional and global economic markets, industries, and companies and have a negative effect on a Fund’s investments and performance beyond any direct exposure to Russian issuers or those of adjoining geographic regions. In addition, Russia may take retaliatory actions and other countermeasures, including cyberattacks and espionage against other countries and companies around the world, which may negatively impact such countries and the companies in which a Fund invests.
The extent and duration of the military action or future escalation of such hostilities, the extent and impact of existing and future sanctions, market disruptions and volatility, and the result of any diplomatic negotiations cannot be predicted. These and any related events could have a significant impact on Fund performance and the value of an investment in a Fund, particularly with respect to Russian exposure.
Illiquid Investments
Each Fund may invest in illiquid investments (i.e., investments that a Fund reasonably expects cannot be sold or disposed of in current market conditions in seven calendar days or less without the sale or disposition significantly changing the market value of the investment). For purposes of this restriction, illiquid investments include, but are not limited to, restricted securities (securities the disposition of which is restricted under the federal securities laws) and repurchase agreements with maturities in excess of seven days. However, a Fund will not acquire illiquid investments if, as a result, such securities would comprise more than 15% of the value of the Fund’s net assets. The Board of Directors or its delegate has the ultimate authority to determine, to the extent permissible under the federal securities laws, which securities are liquid or illiquid for purposes of this 15% limitation. The Board of Directors has delegated to the Adviser the day-to-day determination of the illiquidity of any portfolio security, although it has retained oversight over and ultimate responsibility for such determinations. The Adviser works with and to a large extent relies on the expertise and advice of the Sub-Adviser in making these liquidity determinations. Although no definitive liquidity criteria are used, the Board of Directors has directed the Adviser to look to such factors as (i) the nature of the market for a security (including the institutional private resale market; the frequency of trades and quotes for the security; the number of dealers willing to purchase or sell the
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security; and the amount of time normally needed to dispose of the security, the method of soliciting offers and the mechanics of transfer), (ii) the terms of certain securities or other instruments allowing for the disposition to a third party or the issuer thereof (e.g., certain repurchase obligations and demand instruments), and (iii) other permissible relevant facts.
Inflation Protected Securities
The Funds may invest in inflation protected securities. Inflation protected securities are fixed income securities designed to provide protection against the negative effects of inflation. Two structures are common. The U.S. Treasury and some other issuers use a structure that accrues inflation into the principal value of the bond. Most other issuers pay out the inflation accruals as part of a semiannual coupon.
Inflation protected securities issued by the U.S. Treasury have maturities of five, ten, twenty or thirty years, although it is possible that securities with other maturities will be issued in the future. The U.S. Treasury securities pay interest on a semi-annual basis, equal to a fixed percentage of the inflation-adjusted principal amount. For example, if a Fund purchased an inflation protected bond with a par value of $1,000 and a 3% real rate of return coupon (payable 1.5% semi-annually), and inflation over the first six months was 1%, the mid-year par value of the bond would be $1,010 and the first semi-annual interest payment would be $15.15 ($1,010 times 1.5%). If inflation during the second half of the year resulted in the whole years’ inflation equaling 3%, the end-of-year par value of the bond would be $1,030 and the second semi-annual interest payment would be $15.45 ($1,030 times 1.5%).
If the periodic adjustment rate measuring inflation falls, the principal value of U.S. Treasury inflation protected securities will be adjusted downward, and consequently the interest payable on these securities (calculated with respect to a smaller principal amount) will be reduced. Repayment of the original bond principal upon maturity (as adjusted for inflation) is guaranteed in the case of U.S. Treasury inflation protected bonds, even during a period of deflation. However, the current market value of the bonds is not guaranteed, and will fluctuate. Other inflation-protected securities that accrue inflation into their principal value may or may not provide a similar guarantee. If a guarantee of principal is not provided, the adjusted principal value of the bond repaid at maturity may be less than the original principal.
The value of inflation-protected securities is expected to change in response to changes in real interest rates. Real interest rates in turn are tied to the relationship between nominal interest rates and the rate of inflation. Therefore, if inflation were to rise at a faster rate than nominal interest rates, real interest rates might decline, leading to an increase in value of inflation protected securities. In contrast, if nominal interest rates increased at a faster rate than inflation, real interest rates might rise, leading to a decrease in value of inflation-protected securities.
The periodic adjustment of U.S. inflation protected bonds is tied to the Consumer Price Index for Urban Consumers (“CPI-U”), which is calculated monthly by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The CPI-U is a measurement of changes in the cost of living, made up of components such as housing, food, transportation and energy. Inflation protected securities issued by a foreign government are generally adjusted to reflect a comparable inflation index, calculated by that government. There can be no assurance that the CPI-U or any foreign inflation index will accurately measure the real rate of inflation in the prices of goods and services. Moreover, there can be no assurance that the rate of inflation in a foreign country will be correlated to the rate of inflation in the United States. If the market perceives that the adjustment mechanism of an inflation-protected security does not accurately adjust for inflation, the value of the security could be adversely affected.
While inflation protected securities are expected to be protected from long-term inflationary trends, short-term increases in inflation may lead to a decline in value. The calculation of the inflation index ratio for inflation protected securities issued by the U.S. Treasury incorporates an approximate three-month lag, which may have an effect on the trading price of the securities, particularly during periods of significant, rapid changes in the inflation index. To the extent that inflation has increased during the three months prior to an interest payment, that interest payment will not be protected from the inflation increase. Further, to the extent that inflation has increased during the final three months of a security’s maturity, the final value of the security will not be protected against that increase, which will negatively impact the value of the security. If interest rates rise due to reasons other than inflation (for example, due to changes in currency exchange rates), investors in inflation-protected securities may not be protected to the extent that the increase is not reflected in the bond’s inflation measure.
Any increase in the principal amount of an inflation-protected security will be considered taxable income to a Fund, even though the Fund does not receive its principal until maturity.
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Lending of Portfolio Securities
In order to generate additional income, each Fund may lend portfolio securities representing up to one-third of the value of its total assets to broker-dealers, banks or other institutional borrowers of securities that the Adviser has determined are creditworthy. The securities lending agent will generally bear the risk that a borrower may default on its obligation to return loaned securities, however the Funds bear the risk that the securities lending agent may default on its contractual obligations to the Funds. The Funds also bear the market risk with respect to the investment of the cash collateral used to secure the loan. A Fund may lose money on its investment of cash collateral or may fail to earn sufficient income on its investments to meet its obligations to the borrower. The Funds will pay a portion of the income earned on other lending transactions to the placing broker and may pay administrative and custodial fees in connection with these loans.
In these loan arrangements, the Funds will receive cash collateral equal to not less than 100% of the value of the securities loaned as determined at the time of loan origination. If the market value of the loaned securities increases, the borrower must furnish additional collateral to the lending Fund. During the time portfolio securities are on loan, the borrower pays the lending Fund any dividends or interest paid on the securities. Loans are subject to termination at any time by the lending Fund or the borrower. While a Fund does not have the right to vote securities on loan, it would terminate the loan and regain the right to vote if that were considered important with respect to the investment.
When a Fund lends portfolio securities to a borrower, payments in lieu of dividends made by the borrower to the Fund will not constitute “qualified dividends” taxable at the same rate as long-term capital gains, even if the actual dividends would have constituted qualified dividends had the Fund held the securities. See “Taxation.”
Loans
The Funds may invest in fixed and floating rate loans (“Loans”). Loans may include senior loans (“Senior Loans”) and secured and unsecured junior loans, including subordinated loans, second lien or more junior loans and bridge loans (“Junior Loans”). Loans are typically arranged through private negotiations between borrowers in the United States or in foreign or emerging markets which may be corporate issuers or issuers of sovereign debt obligations (“Obligors”) and one or more financial institutions and other lenders (“Lenders”). The Funds may invest in Loans by purchasing assignments of all or a portion of Loans (“Assignments”) or Loan participations (“Participations”) from third parties.
A Fund has direct rights against the Obligor on the Loan when it purchases an Assignment. Because Assignments are arranged through private negotiations between potential assignees and potential assignors, however, the rights and obligations acquired by a Fund as the purchaser of an Assignment may differ from, and be more limited than, those held by the assigning Lender. With respect to Participations, typically, a Fund will have a contractual relationship only with the Lender and not with the Obligor. The agreement governing Participations may limit the rights of the Fund to vote on certain changes which may be made to the Loan agreement, such as waiving a breach of a covenant. However, the holder of a Participation will generally have the right to vote on certain fundamental issues such as changes in principal amount, payment dates and interest rate. Participations may entail certain risks relating to the creditworthiness of the parties from which the participations are obtained.
A Loan is typically originated, negotiated and structured by a U.S. or foreign commercial bank, insurance company, finance company or other financial institution (the “Agent”) for a group of Loan investors. The Agent typically administers and enforces the Loan on behalf of the other Loan investors in the syndicate. The Agent’s duties may include responsibility for the collection of principal and interest payments from the Obligor and the apportionment of these payments to the credit of all Loan investors. The Agent is also typically responsible for monitoring compliance with the covenants contained in the Loan agreement based upon reports prepared by the Obligor. In addition, an institution, typically but not always the Agent, holds any collateral on behalf of the Loan investors. In the event of a default by the Obligor, it is possible, though unlikely, that the Funds could receive a portion of the borrower’s collateral. If the Funds receive collateral other than cash, any proceeds received from liquidation of such collateral will be available for investment as part of the Funds’ portfolios.
In the process of buying, selling and holding Loans, the Funds may receive and/or pay certain fees. These fees are in addition to interest payments received and may include facility fees, commitment fees, commissions and prepayment penalty fees. When a Fund buys or sells a Loan it may pay a fee. In certain circumstances, the Fund may receive a prepayment penalty fee upon prepayment of a Loan.
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Additional Information Concerning Senior Loans
Senior Loans typically hold the most senior position in the capital structure of the Obligor, are typically secured with specific collateral and have a claim on the assets and/or stock of the Obligor that is senior to that held by subordinated debtholders and shareholders of the Obligor. Collateral for Senior Loans may include (i) working capital assets, such as accounts receivable and inventory; (ii) tangible fixed assets, such as real property, buildings and equipment; (iii) intangible assets, such as trademarks and patent rights; and/or (iv) security interests in shares of stock of subsidiaries or affiliates.
Additional Information Concerning Junior Loans
Junior Loans include secured and unsecured loans including subordinated loans, second lien and more junior loans, and bridge loans. Second lien and more junior loans (“Junior Lien Loans”) are generally second or further in line in terms of repayment priority. In addition, Junior Lien Loans may have a claim on the same collateral pool as the first lien or other more senior liens or may be secured by a separate set of assets. Junior Lien Loans generally give investors priority over general unsecured creditors in the event of an asset sale.Junior Loans that are bridge loans or bridge facilities (“Bridge Loans”) are short-term loan arrangements (e.g., 12 to 18 months) typically made by an Obligor in anticipation of intermediate-term or long-term permanent financing. Most Bridge Loans are structured as floating-rate debt with step-up provisions under which the interest rate on the Bridge Loan rises the longer the Loan remains outstanding. In addition, Bridge Loans commonly contain a conversion feature that allows the Bridge Loan investor to convert its Loan interest to senior exchange notes if the Loan has not been prepaid in full on or prior to its maturity date. Bridge Loans may be subordinate to other debt and may be secured or undersecured.
Additional Information Concerning Unfunded Commitments
Unfunded commitments are contractual obligations pursuant to which a Fund agrees to invest in a Loan at a future date. Typically, the Fund receives a commitment fee for entering into the Unfunded Commitment.
Additional Information Concerning Synthetic Letters of Credit
Loans include synthetic letters of credit. In a synthetic letter of credit transaction, the Lender typically creates a special purpose entity or a credit-linked deposit account for the purpose of funding a letter of credit to the borrower. When a Fund invests in a synthetic letter of credit, the Fund is typically paid a rate based on the Lender’s borrowing costs and the terms of the synthetic letter of credit. Synthetic letters of credit are typically structured as Assignments with the Fund acquiring direct rights against the Obligor.
Limitations on Investments in Loan Assignments and Participations
If a government entity is a borrower on a Loan, the Funds will consider the government to be the issuer of an Assignment or Participation for purposes of each Fund’s fundamental investment policy that it will not invest 25% or more of its total assets in securities of issuers conducting their principal business activities in the same industry (i.e., foreign government).
Loans to Middle-Market Companies
Nuveen Credit Income Fund may invest in Loans to middle-market, privately owned companies. Compared to larger, publicly traded firms, these companies generally have more limited access to capital and higher funding costs, may be in a weaker financial position and may need more capital to expand, compete and operate their business. In addition, many of these companies may be unable to obtain financing from public capital markets or from traditional sources, such as commercial banks. Accordingly, Loans made to these types of borrowers may entail higher risks than Loans made to companies that have larger businesses, greater financial resources or are otherwise able to access traditional credit sources on more attractive terms.
Investing in middle-market companies involves a number of significant risks, including that middle-market companies:
· may have shorter operating histories, narrower product lines and smaller market shares than larger businesses, which tend to render them more vulnerable to competitors’ actions and market conditions, as well as general economic downturns;
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· are more likely to depend on the management talents and efforts of a small group of persons; therefore, the death, disability, resignation or termination of one or more of these persons could have a material adverse impact on the company and, in turn, on the Fund;
· typically have more limited access to the capital markets, which may hinder their ability to refinance borrowings;
· generally have less predictable operating results, may be particularly vulnerable to changes in customer preferences or market conditions, depend on one or a limited number of major customers;
· may from time to time be parties to litigation, may be engaged in rapidly changing businesses with products subject to a substantial risk of obsolescence, and may require substantial additional capital to support their operations, finance expansion or maintain their competitive position; and
· generally have less publicly available information about their businesses, operations and financial condition. If the Fund is unable to uncover all material information about these companies, it may not make a fully informed investment decision, and may lose all or part of its investment.
Any of these factors or changes thereto could impair a middle-market company’s financial condition, results of operation, cash flow or result in other adverse events, such as bankruptcy, any of which could limit a company’s ability to make scheduled payments on Loans from the Fund. This, in turn, may lead to their inability to make payments on outstanding borrowings, which could result in losses in the Fund’s portfolio and a decrease in its net interest income and net asset value.
Risk Factors of Loans
Loans are subject to the risks associated with debt obligations in general including interest rate risk, credit risk and market risk. When a Loan is acquired from a Lender, the risk includes the credit risk associated with the Obligor of the underlying Loan. A Fund may incur additional credit risk when it acquires a participation in a Loan from another lender because the Fund must assume the risk of insolvency or bankruptcy of the other lender from which the Loan was acquired. To the extent that Loans involve Obligors in foreign or emerging markets, such Loans are subject to the risks associated with foreign investments or investments in emerging markets in general. The following outlines some of the additional risks associated with Loans.
High Yield Securities Risk. The Loans that the Funds invest in may not be rated by an NRSRO, will not be registered with the SEC or any state securities commission and will not be listed on any national securities exchange. To the extent that such high yield Loans are rated, they typically will be rated below investment grade and are subject to an increased risk of default in the payment of principal and interest as well as the other risks described under “Non-Investment Grade Debt Securities (Junk Bonds).” Loans are vulnerable to market sentiment such that economic conditions or other events may reduce the demand for Loans and cause their value to decline rapidly and unpredictably.
Liquidity Risk. Although the Funds limit their investments in illiquid investments to no more than 15% of a Fund’s net assets, Loans that are deemed to be liquid at the time of purchase may become illiquid or less liquid. No active trading market may exist for certain Loans, particularly those to middle-market companies, and certain Loans may be subject to restrictions on resale or have a limited secondary market, which may make it difficult to value them. Certain Loans may be subject to irregular trading activity, wide bid/ask spreads and extended trade settlement periods. The inability to dispose of certain Loans in an orderly and timely fashion or at a favorable price could result in losses to a Fund.
Collateral, Subordination and Litigation Risk. With respect to Loans that are secured, the Funds are subject to the risk that collateral securing the Loan will decline in value or have no value or that a Fund’s lien is or will become junior in payment to other liens. A decline in value, whether as a result of bankruptcy proceedings or otherwise, could cause the Loan to be undercollateralized or unsecured. There may be no formal requirement for the Obligor to pledge additional collateral. In addition, collateral may consist of assets that may not be readily liquidated, and there is no assurance that the liquidation of such assets would satisfy an Obligor’s obligation on a Loan.
If an Obligor becomes involved in bankruptcy proceedings, a court may invalidate the Loan or a Fund’s security interest in loan collateral or subordinate a Fund’s rights under a Senior Loan or Junior Loan to the interest of the Obligor’s other creditors, including unsecured creditors, or cause interest or principal previously paid to be refunded to the Obligor. If a court required interest or principal to be refunded, it could negatively affect Fund performance. Such action by a court could be based, for example, on a “fraudulent conveyance” claim to the effect that the Obligor did not receive fair consideration for granting the security interest in the Loan collateral to the Fund. For Senior Loans made
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in connection with a highly leveraged transaction, consideration for granting a security interest may be deemed inadequate if the proceeds of the Loan were not received or retained by the Obligor, but were instead paid to other persons (such as shareholders of the Obligor) in an amount which left the Obligor insolvent or without sufficient working capital. There are also other events, such as the failure to perfect a security interest due to faulty documentation or faulty official filings, which could lead to the invalidation of a Fund’s security interest in Loan collateral. If a Fund’s security interest in Loan collateral is invalidated or the Senior Loan is subordinated to other debt of an Obligor in bankruptcy or other proceedings, a Fund would have substantially lower recovery, and perhaps no recovery on the full amount of the principal and interest due on the Loan, or a Fund could have to refund interest.
Lenders and investors in Loans can be sued by other creditors and shareholders of the Obligors. Losses can be greater than the original Loan amount and occur years after the principal and interest on the Loan have been repaid.
Agent Risk. Selling Lenders, Agents and other entities who may be positioned between a Fund and the Obligor will likely conduct their principal business activities in the banking, finance and financial services industries. Investments in Loans may be more impacted by a single economic, political or regulatory occurrence affecting such industries than other types of investments. Entities engaged in such industries may be more susceptible to, among other things, fluctuations in interest rates, changes in the Federal Open Market Committee’s monetary policy, government regulations concerning such industries and concerning capital raising activities generally and fluctuations in the financial markets generally. An Agent, Lender or other entity positioned between a Fund and the Obligor may become insolvent or enter FDIC receivership or bankruptcy. A Fund might incur certain costs and delays in realizing payment on a Loan or suffer a loss of principal and/or interest if assets or interests held by the Agent, Lender or other party positioned between a Fund and the Obligor are determined to be subject to the claims of the Agent’s, Lender’s or such other party’s creditors.
Regulatory Changes. To the extent that legislation or state or federal regulators that regulate certain financial institutions impose additional requirements or restrictions with respect to the ability of such institutions to make Loans, particularly in connection with highly leveraged transactions, the availability of Loans for investment may be adversely affected. Furthermore, such legislation or regulation could depress the market value of Loans held by a Fund.
Inventory Risk. Affiliates of the Adviser or Sub-Adviser may participate in the primary and secondary market for Loans. Because of limitations imposed by applicable law, the presence of the Adviser’s or Sub-Adviser’s affiliates in the Loan market may restrict a Fund’s ability to acquire some Loans, affect the timing of such acquisition or affect the price at which the Loan is acquired.
Information Risk. There is typically less publicly available information concerning Loans than other types of fixed income investments. As a result, a Fund generally will be dependent on reports and other information provided by the Obligor, either directly or through an Agent, to evaluate the Obligor’s creditworthiness or to determine the Obligor’s compliance with the covenants and other terms of the Loan Agreement. Such reliance may make investments in Loans more susceptible to fraud than other types of investments. In addition, because the Adviser or Sub-Adviser may wish to invest in the publicly traded securities of an Obligor, it may not have access to material non-public information regarding the Obligor to which other Loan investors have access.
Junior Loan Risk. Junior Loans are subject to the same general risks inherent to any Loan investment. Due to their lower place in the Obligor’s capital structure and possible unsecured status, Junior Loans involve a higher degree of overall risk than Senior Loans of the same Obligor. Junior Loans that are Bridge Loans generally carry the expectation that the Obligor will be able to obtain permanent financing in the near future. Any delay in obtaining permanent financing subjects the Bridge Loan investor to increased risk. An Obligor’s use of Bridge Loans also involves the risk that the Obligor may be unable to locate permanent financing to replace the Bridge Loan, which may impair the Obligor’s perceived creditworthiness.
Mortgage-Backed Securities
The Funds may invest in mortgage-backed securities. These investments include agency pass-through certificates, private mortgage pass-through securities, collateralized mortgage obligations, commercial mortgage-backed securities, stripped mortgage-backed securities and adjustable rate mortgage securities, as defined and described below.
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A mortgage-backed security is a type of pass-through security, which is a security representing pooled debt obligations repackaged as interests that pass income through an intermediary to investors. In the case of mortgage-backed securities, the ownership interest is in a pool of mortgage loans. Residential mortgage-backed securities (“RMBS”) are backed by a pool of mortgages on residential property while commercial mortgage-backed securities (“CMBS”) are backed by a pool of mortgages on commercial property.
Mortgage-backed securities are most commonly issued or guaranteed by the Government National Mortgage Association (“Ginnie Mae” or “GNMA”), Federal National Mortgage Association (“Fannie Mae” or “FNMA”) or Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (“Freddie Mac” or “FHLMC”), but may also be issued or guaranteed by other private issuers.
GNMA is a government-owned corporation that is an agency of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. It guarantees, with the full faith and credit of the United States, full and timely payment of all monthly principal and interest on its mortgage-backed securities.
Government-related guarantors (i.e., not backed by the full faith and credit of the U.S. government) include FNMA and FHLMC. FNMA is a government-sponsored corporation. FNMA purchases conventional (i.e., not insured or guaranteed by any government agency) residential mortgages from a list of approved seller/servicers which include state and federally chartered savings and loan associations, mutual savings banks, commercial banks and credit unions and mortgage bankers. Pass-through securities issued by FNMA are guaranteed as to timely payment of principal and interest by FNMA, but are not backed by the full faith and credit of the U.S. government. FHLMC was created by Congress in 1970 for the purpose of increasing the availability of mortgage credit for residential housing. It is a government-sponsored corporation that issues Participation Certificates (“PCs”), which are pass-through securities, each representing an undivided interest in a pool of residential mortgages. FHLMC guarantees the timely payment of interest and ultimate collection of principal, but PCs are not backed by the full faith and credit of the U.S. government.
On September 6, 2008, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (“FHFA”) placed FNMA and FHLMC into conservatorship. As the conservator, FHFA succeeded to all rights, titles, powers and privileges of FNMA and FHLMC and of any stockholder, officer or director of FNMA and FHLMC with respect to FNMA and FHLMC and the assets of FNMA and FHLMC. FHFA selected a new chief executive officer and chairman of the board of directors for each of FNMA and FHLMC. In addition, the U.S. Treasury Department agreed to provide FNMA and FHLMC with up to $100 billion of capital each to ensure that they are able to continue to provide ongoing liquidity to the U.S. home mortgage market. FNMA and FHLMC are continuing to operate as going concerns while in conservatorship and each remain liable for all of its obligations, including its guaranty obligations, associated with its mortgage-backed securities.
The FHFA and U.S. Presidential administration have made public statements regarding plans to consider ending the conservatorships. Under a letter agreement between the FHFA (in its role as conservator) and the U.S. Treasury, the FHFA is prohibited from removing its conservatorship of each enterprise until litigation regarding the conservatorship has ended and each enterprise has retained equity capital levels equal to three percent of their total assets. It is unclear how long it will be before the FHFA will be able to remove its conservatorship of the enterprises under this letter agreement. The FHFA has indicated that the conservatorship of each enterprise will end when the director of the FHFA determines that FHFA’s plan to restore the enterprise to a safe and solvent condition has been completed. The FHFA’s 2022 report to Congress on the conservatorships noted that, under amendments to the Enterprise Regulatory Capital Framework (“ERCF”), FHLMC and FNMA published their first capital disclosures in the first quarter of 2023 and delivered their first capital plans to FHFA in May 2023. In the event that FHLMC or FNMA are taken out of conservatorship, it is unclear how their respective capital structure would be constructed and what impact, if any, there would be on FHLMC’s or FNMA’s creditworthiness and guarantees of certain mortgage-backed securities. The ERCF requires FHLMC and FNMA, upon exit from conservatorship, to maintain higher levels of capital than prior to conservatorships to satisfy their risk-based capital requirements, leverage ratio requirements, and prescribed buffer amounts. The entities are dependent upon the continued support of the U.S. Department of the Treasury and FHFA in order to continue their business operations. These factors, among others, could affect the future status and role of FHLMC and FNMA and the value of their securities and the securities which they guarantee.
Privately Issued Mortgage-Backed Securities. Mortgage-backed securities issued by private issuers, whether or not such obligations are subject to guarantees by the private issuer, may entail greater risk than obligations directly or indirectly guaranteed by the U.S. government. Any investments a Fund makes
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in mortgage-related securities that are issued by private issuers have some exposure to subprime loans as well as to the mortgage and credit markets generally. Private issuers include commercial banks, savings associations, mortgage companies, investment banking firms, finance companies and special purpose finance entities (called special purpose vehicles or structured investment vehicles) and other entities that acquire and package mortgage loans for resale as mortgage-related securities. Unlike mortgage-related securities issued or guaranteed by the U.S. government or one of its sponsored entities, mortgage-related securities issued by private issuers do not have a government or government-sponsored entity guarantee, but may have credit enhancement provided by external entities such as banks or financial institutions or achieved through the structuring of the transaction itself. Examples of such credit support arising out of the structure of the transaction include: (1) the issuance of senior and subordinated securities (e.g., the issuance of securities by a special purpose vehicle in multiple classes or “tranches,” with one or more classes being senior to other subordinated classes as to the payment of principal and interest, with the result that defaults on the underlying mortgage loans are borne first by the holders of the subordinated class); (2) the creation of “reserve funds” (in which case cash or investments, sometimes funded from a portion of the payments on the underlying mortgage loans, are held in reserve against future losses); and (3) “overcollateralization” (in which case the scheduled payments on, or the principal amount of, the underlying mortgage loans exceeds that required to make payment of the securities and pay any servicing or other fees). However, there can be no guarantee that credit enhancements, if any, will be sufficient to prevent losses in the event of defaults on the underlying mortgage loans.
In addition, mortgage-related securities that are issued by private issuers are not subject to the underwriting requirements for the underlying mortgages that are applicable to those mortgage-related securities that have a government or government-sponsored entity guarantee. As a result, the mortgage loans underlying private mortgage-related securities may, and frequently do, have less favorable collateral, credit risk or other underwriting characteristics than government or government-sponsored mortgage-related securities and have wider variances in a number of terms including interest rate, term, size, purpose and borrower characteristics. Privately issued pools more frequently include second mortgages, high loan-to-value mortgages and manufactured housing loans. The coupon rates and maturities of the underlying mortgage loans in a private-label mortgage-related securities pool may vary to a greater extent than those included in a government guaranteed pool, and the pool may include subprime mortgage loans. Subprime loans refer to loans made to borrowers with weakened credit histories or with a lower capacity to make timely payments on their loans. For these reasons, the loans underlying these securities have had in many cases higher default rates than those loans that meet government underwriting requirements.
The risk of non-payment is greater for mortgage-related securities that are backed by mortgage pools that contain subprime loans, but a level of risk exists for all loans. Market factors adversely affecting mortgage loan repayments may include a general economic turndown, high unemployment, a general slowdown in the real estate market, a drop in the market prices of real estate, or an increase in interest rates resulting in higher mortgage payments by holders of adjustable rate mortgages.
Privately issued mortgage-related securities are generally less liquid than obligations directly or indirectly guaranteed by the U.S. government or a government-sponsored entity, especially when there is a perceived weakness in the mortgage and real estate market sectors. Without an active trading market, mortgage-related securities held in a Fund may be particularly difficult to value because of the complexities involved in assessing the value of the underlying mortgage loans.
The average life of a mortgage-backed security is likely to be substantially less than the original maturity of the mortgage pools underlying the securities. Prepayments of principal by mortgagors and mortgage foreclosures will usually result in the return of the greater part of principal invested far in advance of the maturity of the mortgages in the pool or can result in credit losses.
Collateralized Mortgage Obligations. Collateralized mortgage obligations (“CMOs”) are debt obligations collateralized by mortgage loans or mortgage pass-through securities (collateral collectively referred to hereinafter as “Mortgage Assets”). Multi-class pass-through securities are interests in a trust composed of Mortgage Assets. All references in this section to CMOs include multi-class pass-through securities. Principal prepayments on the Mortgage Assets may cause the CMOs to be retired substantially earlier than their stated maturities or final distribution dates, resulting in a loss of all or part of the premium if any has been paid. Interest is paid or accrues on all classes of the CMOs on a monthly, quarterly or semi-annual basis. The principal and interest payments on the Mortgage Assets may be allocated among the various classes of CMOs in several ways. Typically, payments of principal, including any
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prepayments, on the underlying mortgages are applied to the classes in the order of their respective stated maturities or final distribution dates, so that no payment of principal is made on CMOs of a class until all CMOs of other classes having earlier stated maturities or final distribution dates have been paid in full.
Stripped Mortgage-Backed Securities. Stripped mortgage-backed securities (“SMBS”) are derivative multi-class mortgage securities. SMBS are usually structured with two classes that receive different proportions of the interest and principal distributions from a pool of mortgage assets. A Fund will only invest in SMBS whose mortgage assets are U.S. government obligations. A common type of SMBS will be structured so that one class receives some of the interest and most of the principal from the mortgage assets, while the other class receives most of the interest and the remainder of the principal. If the underlying mortgage assets experience greater than anticipated prepayments of principal, a Fund may fail to fully recoup its initial investment in these securities. The market value of any class which consists primarily or entirely of principal payments generally is unusually volatile in response to changes in interest rates.
Adjustable Rate Mortgage Securities. The Funds may invest in Adjustable Rate Mortgage Securities (“ARMS”). ARMS are pass-through mortgage securities collateralized by mortgages with interest rates that are adjusted from time to time. ARMS also include adjustable rate tranches of CMOs. The adjustments usually are determined in accordance with a predetermined interest rate index and may be subject to certain limits. While the values of ARMS, like other debt securities, generally vary inversely with changes in market interest rates (increasing in value during periods of declining interest rates and decreasing in value during periods of increasing interest rates), the values of ARMS should generally be more resistant to price swings than other debt securities because the interest rates of ARMS move with market interest rates. The adjustable rate feature of ARMS will not, however, eliminate fluctuations in the prices of ARMS, particularly during periods of extreme fluctuations in interest rates. Moreover, rising interest rates may lead to borrowers on mortgages underlying ARMS not being able to afford the corresponding higher payments, which could negatively impact the credit and prices of non-agency ARMS.
ARMS typically have caps which limit the maximum amount by which the interest rate may be increased or decreased at periodic intervals or over the life of the loan. To the extent interest rates increase in excess of the caps, ARMS can be expected to behave more like traditional debt securities and to decline in value to a greater extent than would be the case in the absence of such caps. Also, since many adjustable rate mortgages only reset on an annual basis, it can be expected that the prices of ARMS will fluctuate to the extent changes in prevailing interest rates are not immediately reflected in the interest rates payable on the underlying adjustable rate mortgages. The extent to which the prices of ARMS fluctuate with changes in interest rates will also be affected by the indices underlying the ARMS.
Risks of Investing in Mortgage-Backed Securities. Investment in mortgage-backed securities poses several risks, including, among others, prepayment, market and credit risk. Prepayment risk reflects the risk that borrowers may prepay their mortgages faster than expected, thereby affecting the investment’s average life and perhaps its yield. Whether or not a mortgage loan is prepaid is almost entirely controlled by the borrower. Borrowers are most likely to exercise prepayment options at the time when it is least advantageous to investors, generally prepaying mortgages as interest rates fall, and slowing payments as interest rates rise. Besides the effect of prevailing interest rates, the rate of prepayment and refinancing of mortgages may also be affected by home value appreciation, ease of the refinancing process and local economic conditions. Market risk reflects the risk that the price of a security may fluctuate over time. The price of mortgage-backed securities may be particularly sensitive to prevailing interest rates, the length of time the security is expected to be outstanding and the liquidity of the issue. In a period of unstable interest rates, there may be decreased demand for certain types of mortgage-backed securities, and a Fund invested in such securities wishing to sell them may find it difficult to find a buyer, which may in turn decrease the price at which they may be sold. Credit risk reflects the risk that a Fund may not receive all or part of its principal because the issuer or credit enhancer has defaulted on its obligations. Obligations issued by U.S. government-related entities are guaranteed as to the payment of principal and interest, but are not backed by the full faith and credit of the U.S. government. The performance of private label mortgage-backed securities, issued by private institutions, is based on the financial health of those institutions.
The risks to which CMBS are subject differ somewhat from the risks to which RMBS are subject. CMBS are typically backed by a much smaller number of mortgages than RMBS are, so problems with one or a small number of mortgages backing a CMBS can have a large impact on its value. As CMBS
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have a less diversified pool of loans backing them, they are much more susceptible to property-specific risk. The values of CMBS are also more sensitive to macroeconomic trends. For example, when the economy slows rents generally decrease and vacancies generally increase for commercial real estate. Similarly, as many CMBS have a large exposure to retail properties, events that negatively impact the retail industry can also negatively impact the value of CMBS.
Municipal Bonds and Other Municipal Obligations
The Funds may invest in municipal bonds and other municipal obligations. These bonds and other obligations are issued by the states and by their local and special-purpose political subdivisions. The term “municipal bond” includes short-term municipal notes issued by the states and their political subdivisions, including, but not limited to, tax anticipation notes (“TANs”), bond anticipation notes (“BANs”), revenue anticipation notes (“RANs”), construction loan notes, tax free commercial paper, and tax free participation certificates. In general, municipal obligations include debt obligations issued by states, cities and local authorities to obtain funds for various public purposes, including construction of a wide range of public facilities such as airports, bridges, highways, hospitals, housing, mass transportation, schools, streets and water and sewer works.
General obligation bonds are backed by the issuer’s pledge of its faith, credit, and taxing power for the payment of principal and interest. The taxes that can be levied for the payment of debt service may be limited or unlimited as to rate and amount. For a limited obligation or revenue bond, the only security is typically the net revenue derived from payments by a particular facility or class of facilities financed by the proceeds of the bonds or, in some cases, from the proceeds of a special tax or other special revenues. Although the security behind these bonds varies widely, many lower rated bonds provide additional security in the form of a debt service reserve fund that may also be used to make principal and interest payments on the issuer’s obligations. In addition, some revenue obligations (as well as general obligations) are insured by a bond insurance company or backed by a letter of credit issued by a banking institution. The credit quality of revenue bonds is usually directly related to the credit standing of the user of the facility being financed or of an institution which provides a guarantee, letter of credit or other credit enhancement for the bond issue. Revenue bonds do not generally constitute the pledge of the credit of the issuer of such bonds and are generally not secured by the taxing power of the municipality. Revenue bonds are included in the term municipal obligations if the interest paid thereon is exempt from federal income tax. Revenue bonds may include, but are not limited to, pollution control, health care, housing, education-related and industrial development bonds.
Generally, the creditworthiness of a local municipal obligation is unrelated to that of the municipal obligations of the state itself if the state has no responsibility to guarantee or otherwise make payments on those local municipal obligations.
Generally, interest received on municipal obligations is exempt from federal income tax. The tax-exempt nature of the interest on a municipal obligation is generally the subject of a bond counsel opinion delivered in connection with the issuance of the instrument. Tax opinions are generally provided at the time the municipal security is initially issued and neither a Fund or its portfolio managers will independently review the bases for those tax opinions or guarantee that the tax opinions are correct. There is no assurance that the Internal Revenue Service will agree with bond counsel’s opinion that such interest is tax-exempt or that the interest payments on such municipal obligations will continue to be tax exempt for the life of the municipal obligation. Issuers or other parties generally enter into covenants requiring continuing compliance with federal tax requirements to preserve the tax-free status of interest payments over the life of the municipal obligation. If at any time the covenants are not complied with, or if the Internal Revenue Service otherwise determines that the issuer did not comply with relevant tax requirements, interest payments from a municipal obligation could become federally taxable, possibly retroactively to the date the municipal obligation was issued, and an investor may need to file an amended income tax return.
Obligations of issuers of municipal obligations are subject to the provisions of bankruptcy, insolvency and other laws affecting the rights and remedies of creditors. The application of state law to municipal obligation issuers could produce varying results among the states or among municipal obligation issuers within a state. These uncertainties could have a significant impact on the prices of the municipal obligations in which a Fund invests. In addition, issuers of municipal obligations may become subject to the laws enacted in the future by Congress, state legislatures or referenda extending the time for payment of principal and/or interest, or imposing other constraints upon enforcement of such obligations or upon municipalities to levy taxes. There is also the possibility that, as a result of legislation or other conditions,
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the power or ability of any issuer to pay, when due, the principal of and interest on its municipal obligations may be materially affected.
Municipal Bonds
The two general classifications of municipal bonds are “general obligation” bonds and “revenue” bonds. General obligation bonds are secured by the governmental issuer’s pledge of its faith, credit and taxing power for the payment of principal and interest upon a default by the issuer of its principal and interest payment obligations. They are usually paid from general revenues of the issuing governmental entity. Revenue bonds, on the other hand, are usually payable only out of a specific revenue source rather than from general revenues. Revenue bonds ordinarily are not backed by the faith, credit or general taxing power of the issuing governmental entity. The principal and interest on revenue bonds for private facilities are typically paid out of rents or other specified payments made to the issuing governmental entity by a private company which uses or operates the facilities. Examples of these types of obligations are industrial revenue bond and pollution control revenue bonds. Industrial revenue bonds are issued by governmental entities to provide financing aid to community facilities such as hospitals, hotels, business or residential complexes, convention halls and sport complexes. Pollution control revenue bonds are issued to finance air, water and solids pollution control systems for privately operated industrial or commercial facilities.Revenue bonds for private facilities usually do not represent a pledge of the credit, general revenues or taxing powers of issuing governmental entity. Instead, the private company operating the facility is the sole source of payment of the obligation. Sometimes, the funds for payment of revenue bonds come solely from revenue generated by operation of the facility. Federal income tax laws place substantial limitations on industrial revenue bonds, and particularly certain specified private activity bonds issued after August 7, 1986. In the future, legislation could be introduced in Congress which could further restrict or eliminate the income tax exemption for interest on debt obligations in which the Funds may invest.
Refunded Bonds
The Funds may invest in refunded bonds. Refunded bonds may have originally been issued as general obligation or revenue bonds, but become refunded when they are secured by an escrow fund, usually consisting entirely of direct U.S. government obligations and/or U.S. government agency obligations sufficient for paying the bondholders. There are two types of refunded bonds: pre-refunded bonds and escrowed-to-maturity (“ETM”) bonds. The escrow fund for a pre-refunded municipal bond may be structured so that the refunded bonds are to be called at the first possible date or a subsequent call date established in the original bond debenture. The call price usually includes a premium from 1% to 3% above par. This type of structure usually is used for those refundings that either reduce the issuer’s interest payment expenses or change the debt maturity schedule. In escrow funds for ETM refunded municipal bonds, the maturity schedules of the securities in the escrow funds match the regular debt-service requirements on the bonds as originally stated in the bond indentures.
Municipal Leases and Certificates of Participation
The Funds also may purchase municipal lease obligations, primarily through certificates of participation. Certificates of participation in municipal leases are undivided interests in a lease, installment purchase contract or conditional sale contract entered into by a state or local governmental unit to acquire equipment or facilities. Municipal leases frequently have special risks which generally are not associated with general obligation bonds or revenue bonds. Municipal leases and installment purchase or conditional sales contracts (which usually provide for title to the leased asset to pass to the governmental issuer upon payment of all amounts due under the contract) have evolved as a means for governmental issuers to acquire property and equipment without meeting the constitutional and statutory requirements for the issuance of municipal debt.
Although lease obligations do not constitute general obligations of the municipality for which the municipality’s taxing power is pledged, a lease obligation is ordinarily backed by the municipality’s covenant to budget for, appropriate and make the payments due under the lease obligation. However, certain lease obligations contain “non-appropriation” clauses, which provide that the municipality has no obligation to make lease or installment purchase payments in future years unless money is appropriated for such purpose on a yearly basis. In evaluating securities for purchase, a Fund will take into account the incentive of the issuer to appropriate under the lease, among other factors. Some lease obligations may be illiquid under certain circumstances. Although non-appropriation lease obligations are secured by the leased equipment or facilities, disposition of the property in the event of foreclosure might prove difficult
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and time consuming. In addition, disposition upon non-appropriation or foreclosure might not result in recovery by a Fund of the full principal amount represented by an obligation.
In light of these concerns, the Funds have adopted and follow procedures for determining whether any municipal lease obligations purchased by the Funds are liquid and for monitoring the liquidity of municipal lease securities held in a Fund. These procedures require that a number of factors be used in evaluating the liquidity of a municipal lease security, including the frequency of trades and quotes for the security, the number of dealers willing to purchase or sell the security and the number of other potential purchasers, the willingness of dealers to undertake to make a market in security, the nature of the marketplace in which the security trades, and other factors which the Sub-Adviser may deem relevant. As set forth in “Investment Restrictions” above, each Fund is subject to limitations on the percentage of illiquid investments it can hold.
Derivative Municipal Securities
The Funds may also acquire derivative municipal securities, which are custodial receipts of certificates underwritten by securities dealers or banks that evidence ownership of future interest payments, principal payments or both on certain municipal securities. The underwriter of these certificates or receipts typically purchases municipal securities and deposits them in an irrevocable trust or custodial account with a custodian bank, which then issues receipts or certificates that evidence ownership of the periodic unmatured coupon payments and the final principal payment on the obligation.
The principal and interest payments on the municipal securities underlying custodial receipts may be allocated in a number of ways. For example, payments may be allocated such that certain custodial receipts may have variable or floating interest rates and others may be stripped securities which pay only the principal or interest due on the underlying municipal securities. The Funds may invest in custodial receipts which have inverse floating interest rates and other inverse floating rate municipal obligations, as described below under “Inverse Floating Rate Municipal Securities.”
Variable Rate Demand Notes (“VRDNs”)
VRDNs are long-term municipal obligations that have variable or floating interest rates and provide a Fund with the right to tender the security for repurchase at its stated principal amount plus accrued interest. Such securities typically bear interest at a rate that is intended to cause the securities to trade at par. The interest rate may float or be adjusted at regular intervals (ranging from daily to annually), and is normally based on an applicable interest index or another published interest rate or interest rate index. Most VRDNs allow a Fund to demand the repurchase of the security on not more than seven days prior notice. Other notes only permit a Fund to tender the security at the time of each interest rate adjustment or at other fixed intervals. Variable interest rates generally reduce changes in the market value of municipal obligations from their original purchase prices. Accordingly, as interest rates decrease, the potential for capital appreciation is less for variable rate municipal obligations than for fixed income obligations.
Inverse Floating Rate Municipal Securities
The Funds may invest in inverse floating rate municipal securities or “inverse floaters,” whose rates vary inversely to interest rates on a specified short-term municipal bond index or on another instrument. Such securities involve special risks as compared to conventional fixed-rate bonds. Should short-term interest rates rise, a Fund’s investment in inverse floaters likely would adversely affect the Fund’s earnings and distributions to shareholders. Also, because changes in the interest rate on the other index or other instrument inversely affect the rate of interest received on an inverse floater, and because inverse floaters essentially represent a leveraged investment in a long-term bond, the value of an inverse floater is generally more volatile than that of a conventional fixed-rate bond having similar credit quality, redemption provisions and maturity. Although volatile in value, inverse floaters typically offer the potential for yields substantially exceeding the yields available on conventional fixed-rate bonds with comparable credit quality, coupon, call provisions and maturity. The markets for inverse floating rate securities may be less developed and have less liquidity than the markets for conventional securities. The Funds will only invest in inverse floating rate securities whose underlying bonds are rated A or higher.
Non-Investment Grade Debt Securities (Junk Bonds)
The Funds may invest in non-investment grade debt securities. Non-investment grade debt securities are medium- to low-quality debt obligations. Debt obligations rated below investment grade (BB/Ba or lower) are commonly known as “high yield,” “high risk” or “junk” bonds. A debt obligation is considered to be rated “investment grade” if two of Moody’s, Standard & Poor’s and Fitch rate the security investment-
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grade (i.e., at least Baa, BBB and BBB, respectively). If ratings are provided by only two of those rating agencies, the more conservative rating is used to determine whether the security is investment-grade. If only one of those rating agencies provides a rating, that rating is used. There are no minimum rating requirements for Nuveen Credit Income Fund (which means that the Fund may invest in bonds in default). Nuveen Strategic Income Fund may not invest in non-investment grade debt obligations rated by two of Standard & Poor’s, Fitch and Moody’s lower than CCC, CCC or Caa, respectively, unless only one of those rating agencies rates the security, in which case that rating must be at least CCC or Caa, or in unrated securities determined to be of comparable quality by the Sub-Adviser.
Junk bonds, while generally offering higher yields than investment grade securities with similar maturities, involve greater risks, including the possibility of default or bankruptcy. They are regarded as predominantly speculative with respect to the issuer’s capacity to pay interest and repay principal. The special risk considerations in connection with investments in these securities are discussed below. Refer to Appendix A of this Statement of Additional Information for a discussion of securities ratings.
(1) Effect of Interest Rates and Economic Changes. All interest-bearing securities typically experience appreciation when interest rates decline and depreciation when interest rates rise. In addition, the market values of junk bond securities tend to reflect individual issuer developments to a greater extent than do the market values of higher rated securities, which react primarily to fluctuations in the general level of interest rates. Junk bond securities also tend to be more sensitive to economic conditions than are higher rated securities. As a result, they generally involve more credit risk than securities in the higher rated categories. During an economic downturn or a sustained period of rising interest rates, highly leveraged issuers of junk bond securities may experience financial stress and may not have sufficient revenues to meet their payment obligations. The risk of loss due to default by an issuer of these securities is significantly greater than by an issuer of higher rated securities because such securities are generally unsecured and are often subordinated to other creditors. Further, if the issuer of a junk bond security defaults, a Fund may incur additional expenses to seek recovery. Periods of economic uncertainty and changes would also generally result in increased volatility in the market prices of these and thus in the Fund’s net asset value.
The value of a junk bond security will generally decrease in a rising interest rate market and, accordingly, so will a Fund’s net asset value. If a Fund experiences unexpected net redemptions in such a market, it may be forced to liquidate a portion of its portfolio securities without regard to their investment merits. Due to the limited liquidity of certain junk bond securities, a Fund may be forced to liquidate these securities at a substantial discount. Any such liquidation would reduce a Fund’s asset base over which expenses could be allocated and could result in a reduced rate of return for the Fund.
(2) Payment Expectations. Junk bond securities typically contain redemption, call, or prepayment provisions that permit the issuer of securities containing such provisions to redeem the securities at its discretion. During periods of falling interest rates, issuers of these securities are likely to redeem or prepay the securities and refinance them with debt securities with a lower interest rate. To the extent an issuer is able to refinance the securities, or otherwise redeem them, a Fund may have to replace the securities with lower yielding securities, which could result in a lower return for the Fund.
(3) Credit Ratings. Credit ratings are issued by credit rating agencies and are indicative of the rated securities’ safety of principal and interest payments. They do not, however, evaluate the market value risk of junk bond securities and, therefore, may not fully reflect the true risks of such an investment. In addition, credit rating agencies may not make timely changes in a rating to reflect changes in the economy or in the condition of the issuer that affect the value of the security. Consequently, credit ratings are used only as a preliminary indicator of investment quality. Investments in junk bonds will depend more upon credit analysis by the Sub-Adviser than investments in investment grade debt securities. The Sub-Adviser employs its own credit research and analysis, which includes a study of the issuer’s existing debt, capital structure, ability to service debts and pay dividends, sensitivity to economic conditions, operating history, and current earnings trend. The Sub-Adviser continually monitors the Funds’ investments and carefully evaluates whether to dispose of or to retain junk bond securities whose credit ratings or credit quality may have changed.
(4) Liquidity and Valuation. A Fund may have difficulty disposing of certain junk bond securities because there may be a thin trading market for such securities. Not all dealers maintain markets in all junk bond securities. As a result, there is no established retail secondary market for many of these securities. To the extent a secondary trading market does exist, it is generally not as liquid as the
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secondary market for higher rated securities. The lack of a liquid secondary market may have an adverse impact on the market price of the security. The lack of a liquid secondary market for certain securities may also make it more difficult for a Fund to obtain accurate market quotations for purposes of valuing its securities. Market quotations are generally available on many junk bond issues only from a limited number of dealers and may not necessarily represent firm bids of such dealers or prices for actual sales. During periods of thin trading, the spread between bid and asked prices is likely to increase significantly. In addition, adverse publicity and investor perceptions, whether or not based on fundamental analysis, may decrease the value and liquidity of junk bond securities, especially in a thinly traded market.
Other Investment Companies
Each Fund may invest in other investment companies, such as open-end funds, closed-end funds, unit investment trusts, and ETFs registered under the 1940 Act, that invest primarily in Fund-eligible investments. Under the 1940 Act, a Fund’s investment in such securities is generally limited to 3% of the total voting stock of any one investment company; 5% of such Fund’s total assets with respect to any one investment company; and 10% of such Fund’s total assets in the aggregate. A Fund’s investments in other investment companies may include money market mutual funds. Investments in money market funds are not subject to the percentage limitations set forth above. Registered investment companies may invest in an underlying fund in excess of these percentage limits imposed by the 1940 Act in reliance on certain exemptions, such as Rule 12d1-4 under the 1940 Act. When a Fund serves as an underlying fund in reliance on Rule 12d1-4, or in reliance on Section 12(d)(1)(G) of the 1940 Act while relying on Rule 12d1-4 to invest in other investment companies, such Fund’s ability to invest in other investment companies and private funds will generally be limited to 10% of the Fund’s assets.
If a Fund invests in other investment companies, Fund shareholders will bear not only their proportionate share of the Fund’s expenses, but also, indirectly, the similar expenses of the underlying investment companies. Shareholders would also be exposed to the risks associated not only with a Fund, but also with the portfolio investments of the underlying investment companies. Shares of certain closed-end funds may at times be acquired at market prices representing premiums to their net asset values. Shares acquired at a premium to their net asset value may be more likely to subsequently decline in price, resulting in a loss to a Fund and its shareholders.
Payment-In-Kind Debentures and Delayed Interest Securities
The Funds may invest in debentures the interest on which may be paid in other securities rather than cash (“PIKs”) or may be delayed (“delayed interest securities”). Typically, during a specified term prior to the debenture’s maturity, the issuer of a PIK may provide for the option or the obligation to make interest payments in debentures, common stock or other instruments (i.e., “in kind” rather than in cash). The type of instrument in which interest may or will be paid would be known by a Fund at the time of investment. While PIKs generate income for purposes of generally accepted accounting standards, they do not generate cash flow and thus could cause a Fund to be forced to liquidate securities at an inopportune time in order to distribute cash, as required by the Code.
Unlike PIKs, delayed interest securities do not pay interest for a specified period. Because values of securities of this type are subject to greater fluctuations than are the values of securities that distribute income regularly, they may be more speculative than such securities.
Preferred Securities
The Funds may invest in preferred securities with different distribution structures. The various coupon structures may be broadly characterized as follows:
· Fixed Rate Preferred Securities are preferred securities that pay a fixed rate of interest throughout the life of the security and tend to exhibit more price volatility during times of rising or falling interest rates than securities with variable or floating rates of interest. The value of fixed-rate securities tends to fall when interest rates rise (and vice versa).
· Fixed-to-Fixed Preferred Securities are preferred securities that have a distribution rate of payment that is fixed for a certain period (typically five or ten years when first issued) and such period is usually aligned with the first call date. After the defined period expires, the fixed distribution rate then resets to another fixed distribution rate, according to a specified formula, and typically resets with the same longer-term frequency for the remaining life of the security (typically five or ten years).
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· Fixed-to-Floating Preferred Securities are preferred securities that have a distribution rate of payment that is fixed for a certain period (typically five or ten years when first issued) and such period is usually aligned with the first call date. After this period, distribution rates vary for the remaining life of the security, periodically adjusting according to a specified formula, usually with reference to some interest rate index or market interest rate. The value of fixed-to-floating preferred securities may fluctuate less in response to market interest rate movements than the value of preferred securities with a fixed interest rate, because the interest rate paid by fixed-to-floating preferred securities is variable.
· Floating-Rate Preferred Securities are preferred securities that offer a distribution rate of payment that resets periodically (commonly every 90 days) to an increment over some predetermined interest rate index or benchmark rate. Some commonly used indices include the 3-month U.S. Treasury bill rate, the 180-day U.S. Treasury bill, or the one-month or three-month London Interbank Offered Rate (“LIBOR”) (which was phased out), a replacement rate for LIBOR such as the Secured Overnight Financing Rate (“SOFR”) or another rate based on the SOFR, the prime rate of a bank, the commercial paper rates, or the longer-term rates on U.S. Treasury securities. The value of floating-rate preferred securities may fluctuate less in response to market interest rate movements than the value of preferred securities with a fixed interest rate. Any potential effects of the transition away from LIBOR on a Fund or on certain instruments in which a Fund invests can be difficult to ascertain. The transition may also result in a reduction in the value of certain instruments held by a Fund or a reduction in the effectiveness of related Fund transactions such as hedges. In addition, an instrument’s transition to a replacement rate could result in variations in the reported yields of a Fund that holds such instrument. At this time, it is not possible to predict the effect of the establishment of replacement rates or any other reforms to LIBOR. Any such effects of the transition away from LIBOR, as well as other unforeseen effects, could result in losses to a Fund.
As a general matter, dividend or interest payments on preferred securities may be cumulative or non-cumulative. Although issuers of cumulative preferred securities generally can defer distributions for a specified period of time, no redemption can typically take place unless all cumulative payment obligations have been met. Issuers may, however, be able to engage in open-market repurchases without regard to any cumulative dividends payable. For non-cumulative preferred securities, the issuer does not have any obligation with respect to skipped payments.
Preferred securities may be issued with either a final maturity date, or as a perpetual structure. In certain instances, a final maturity date may be extended and/or the final payment of principal may be deferred at the issuer’s option for a specified time without any adverse consequence to the issuer.
Real Estate Investment Trust (“REIT”) Securities
Nuveen Credit Income Fund may invest in common stock issued by REITs. Each Fund may invest in debt securities issued by REITs and preferred stock issued by REITs. REITs are publicly traded corporations or trusts that specialize in acquiring, holding, and managing residential, commercial or industrial real estate. A REIT is not taxed at the entity level on income distributed to its shareholders or unitholders if it distributes to shareholders or unitholders at least 90% of its taxable income for each taxable year and complies with regulatory requirements relating to its organization, ownership, assets and income.
REITs generally can be classified as equity REITs, mortgage REITs and hybrid REITs. An equity REIT invests the majority of its assets directly in real property and derives its income primarily from rents and from capital gains on real estate appreciation which are realized through property sales. A mortgage REIT invests the majority of its assets in real estate mortgage loans and services its income primarily from interest payments. A hybrid REIT combines the characteristics of an equity REIT and a mortgage REIT.
Investing in REITs would subject a Fund to risks associated with the real estate industry. The real estate industry has been subject to substantial fluctuations and declines on a local, regional and national basis in the past and may continue to be in the future. Real property values and income from real property may decline due to general and local economic conditions, overbuilding and increased competition, increases in property taxes and operating expenses, changes in zoning laws, casualty or condemnation losses, regulatory limitations on rents, changes in neighborhoods and in demographics, increases in market interest rates, or other factors. Factors such as these may adversely affect
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companies which own and operate real estate directly, companies which lend to such companies, and companies which service the real estate industry.
A Fund is also subject to risks associated with direct investments in REITs. Equity REITs will be affected by changes in the values of and income from the properties they own, while mortgage REITs may be affected by the credit quality of the mortgage loans they hold. In addition, REITs are dependent on specialized management skills and on their ability to generate cash flow for operating purposes and to make distributions to shareholders or unitholders. REITs may have limited diversification and are subject to risks associated with obtaining financing for real property, as well as to the risk of self-liquidation. REITs also can be adversely affected by their failure to qualify for tax-free pass-through treatment of their income under the Code or their failure to maintain an exemption from registration under the 1940 Act. By investing in REITs indirectly through a Fund, a shareholder bears not only a proportionate share of the expenses of the Fund, but also may indirectly bear similar expenses of some of the REITs in which it invests.
Restricted Securities
Restricted securities may be sold only in privately negotiated transactions or in a public offering with respect to which a registration statement is in effect under the Securities Act. Where registration is required, a Fund may be obligated to pay all or part of the registration expenses and a considerable period may elapse between the time of the decision to sell and the time the Fund may be permitted to sell a security under an effective registration statement. If, during such a period, adverse market conditions were to develop, a Fund might obtain a less favorable price than that which prevailed when it decided to sell. Illiquid investments will be priced at fair value as determined in good faith by the Board of Directors or its delegate.
The Funds may also purchase securities which, while privately placed, are eligible for purchase and sale under Rule 144A under the Securities Act. This rule permits certain qualified institutional buyers, such as the Funds, to trade in privately placed securities even though such securities are not registered under the Securities Act. The liquidity of these securities is monitored based on a variety of factors.
Royalty Trusts
Each Fund may invest in publicly-traded royalty trusts. Royalty trusts are income-oriented equity investments that indirectly, through the ownership of trust units, provide investors (called “unit holders”) with exposure to energy sector assets such as coal, oil and natural gas. Royalty trusts are structured similarly to REITs. A royalty trust generally acquires an interest in natural resource companies or chemical companies and distributes the income it receives to the investors of the royalty trust. A sustained decline in demand for crude oil, natural gas and refined petroleum products could adversely affect income and royalty trust revenues and cash flows. Factors that could lead to a decrease in market demand include a recession or other adverse economic conditions, an increase in the market price of the underlying commodity, higher taxes or other regulatory actions that increase costs, or a shift in consumer demand for such products. A rising interest rate environment could adversely impact the performance of royalty trusts. Rising interest rates could limit the capital appreciation of royalty trusts because of the increased availability of alternative investments at more competitive yields.
U.S. Government Securities
Each Fund may invest in U.S. government securities, including bills, notes and bonds differing as to maturity and rates of interest, which are either issued or guaranteed by the U.S. Treasury or by U.S. government agencies or instrumentalities. U.S. government agency securities include securities issued by (a) the Federal Housing Administration, Farmers Home Administration, Export-Import Bank of the United States, Small Business Administration, and the Government National Mortgage Association, whose securities are supported by the full faith and credit of the United States; (b) the Federal Home Loan Banks, Federal Intermediate Credit Banks, and the Tennessee Valley Authority, whose securities are supported by the right of the agency to borrow from the U.S. Treasury; (c) the Federal National Mortgage Association, whose securities are supported by the discretionary authority of the U.S. government to purchase certain obligations of the agency or instrumentality; and (d) the Student Loan Marketing Association, whose securities are supported only by its credit. While the U.S. government provides financial support to such U.S. government-sponsored agencies or instrumentalities, no assurance can be given that it always will do so since it is not so obligated by law. The U.S. government, its agencies and instrumentalities do not guarantee the market value of their securities, and consequently, the value of such securities may fluctuate.
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U.S. Treasury obligations include separately traded interest and principal component parts of such obligations, known as Separately Traded Registered Interest and Principal Securities (“STRIPS”), which are transferable through the Federal book-entry system. STRIPS are sold as zero coupon securities, which means that they are sold at a substantial discount and redeemed at face value at their maturity date without interim cash payments of interest or principal. This discount is accreted over the life of the security, and such accretion will constitute the income earned on the security for both accounting and tax purposes. Because of these features, such securities may be subject to greater interest rate volatility than interest paying U.S. Treasury obligations.
Variable, Floating, and Fixed Rate Debt Obligations
The debt obligations in which the Funds invest may have variable, floating, or fixed interest rates. Variable rate securities provide for periodic adjustments in the interest rate. Floating rate securities are generally offered at an initial interest rate which is at or above prevailing market rates. The interest rate paid on floating rate securities is then reset periodically (commonly every 90 days) to an increment over some predetermined interest rate index. Commonly utilized indices include the three-month Treasury bill rate, the 180-day Treasury bill rate, the one-month or three-month LIBOR (which was phased out), the Federal Funds Rate, the prime rate of a bank, the commercial paper rates, or the longer-term rates on U.S. Treasury securities. Variable and floating rate securities are relatively long-term instruments that often carry demand features permitting the holder to demand payment of principal at any time or at specified intervals prior to maturity plus accrued interest. In order to most effectively use these securities, the Sub-Adviser must correctly assess probable movements in interest rates. If the Sub-Adviser incorrectly forecasts such movements, a Fund could be adversely affected by use of variable and floating rate securities.
LIBOR is an average interest rate, determined by the Intercontinental Exchange Benchmark Administration, which banks charge one another for the use of short-term money. In addition, the terms of many investments, financings or other transactions in the U.S. and globally have been historically tied to LIBOR, which functions as a reference rate or benchmark for various commercial and financial contracts. LIBOR was a leading floating rate benchmark used in loans, notes, derivatives and other instruments or investments. As a result of benchmark reforms, publication of most LIBOR settings has ceased. Some LIBOR settings continue to be published, but only on a temporary, synthetic and non-representative basis. Regulated entities have generally ceased entering into new LIBOR contracts in connection with regulatory guidance and prohibitions. There remains uncertainty regarding the future use of LIBOR and the nature of any replacement rate, and any potential effects of the transition away from LIBOR on a Fund or on certain instruments in which a Fund invests are not known. Various financial industry groups have begun planning for that transition and certain regulators and industry groups have taken actions to establish alternative reference rates (e.g., SOFR, which measures the cost of overnight borrowings through repurchase agreement transactions collateralized with U.S. Treasury securities and is intended to replace U.S. dollar LIBOR with certain adjustments). At this time, it is not possible to predict the effect of the establishment of any replacement rates or any other reforms to LIBOR. Any such effects of the transition away from LIBOR, as well as other unforeseen effects, could result in losses to a Fund.
The Internal Revenue Service (the “IRS”) has issued regulations regarding the tax consequences of the transition from LIBOR or another interbank offered rate (“IBOR”) to a new reference rate in debt instruments and non-debt contracts. Under the regulations, alteration or modification of the terms of a debt instrument to replace an operative rate that uses a discontinued IBOR with a qualified rate (as defined in the regulations) including true up payments equalizing the fair market value of contracts before and after such IBOR transition, to add a qualified rate as a fallback rate to a contract whose operative rate uses a discontinued IBOR or to replace a fallback rate that uses a discontinued IBOR with a qualified rate would not be taxable. The IRS may provide additional guidance, with potential retroactive effect.
Fixed rate securities pay a fixed rate of interest and tend to exhibit more price volatility during times of rising or falling interest rates than securities with variable or floating rates of interest. The value of fixed rate securities will tend to fall when interest rates rise and rise when interest rates fall. A Fund may be subject to heightened levels of interest rate risk because the U.S. Federal Reserve (the “Fed”), as of the date of this SAI, has sharply raised interest rates from historically low levels and has signaled an intention to continue to do so until current inflation levels align with the Fed’s long-term inflation target. To the extent the Fed continues to raise interest rates, there is a risk that rates across the financial system may rise. The value of variable or floating rate securities, on the other hand, fluctuates much less in response to market interest rate movements than the value of fixed rate securities. This is because variable and floating rate securities behave like short-term instruments in that the rate of interest they pay is subject to
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periodic adjustments according to a specified formula, usually with reference to some interest rate index or market interest rate. Fixed rate securities with short-term characteristics are not subject to the same price volatility as fixed rate securities without such characteristics. Therefore, they behave more like variable or floating rate securities with respect to price volatility.
When-Issued and Delayed Delivery Transactions
Each Fund may purchase securities on a when-issued or delayed delivery basis. When such a transaction is negotiated, the purchase price is fixed at the time the purchase commitment is entered, but delivery of and payment for the securities take place at a later date. A Fund will not accrue income with respect to securities purchased on a when-issued or delayed delivery basis prior to their stated delivery date.
The purchase of securities on a when-issued or delayed delivery basis exposes a Fund to risk because the securities may decrease in value prior to delivery. In addition, a Fund’s purchase of securities on a when-issued or delayed delivery basis while remaining substantially fully invested could increase the amount of the Fund’s total assets that are subject to market risk, resulting in increased sensitivity of net asset value to changes in market prices. A seller’s failure to deliver securities to a Fund could prevent the Fund from realizing a price or yield considered to be advantageous.
When a Fund agrees to purchase securities on a when-issued or delayed delivery basis, the Fund may be required to segregate cash or liquid securities in an amount sufficient to meet the Fund’s purchase commitments. It may be expected that a Fund’s net assets will fluctuate to a greater degree when it sets aside securities to cover such purchase commitments than when it sets aside cash. In addition, because a Fund may be required to set aside cash or liquid securities to satisfy its purchase commitments, its liquidity and the ability of the Sub-Adviser to manage it might be affected in the event its commitments to purchase when-issued or delayed delivery securities ever became significant. Under normal market conditions, however, a Fund’s commitments to purchase when-issued or delayed delivery securities will not exceed 25% of the value of its total assets.
Zero Coupon and Step Coupon Securities
The Funds may invest in zero coupon and step coupon securities. Zero coupon securities pay no cash income to their holders until they mature. When held to maturity, their entire return comes from the difference between their purchase price and their maturity value. Step coupon securities are debt securities that may not pay interest for a specified period of time and then, after the initial period, may pay interest at a series of different rates. Both zero coupon and step coupon securities are issued at substantial discounts from their value at maturity. Because interest on these securities is not paid on a current basis, the values of securities of this type are subject to greater fluctuations than are the value of securities that distribute income regularly and may be more speculative than such securities. Accordingly, the values of these securities may be highly volatile as interest rates rise or fall. In addition, while such securities generate income for purposes of generally accepted accounting standards, they do not generate cash flow and thus could cause a Fund to be forced to liquidate securities at an inopportune time in order to distribute cash, as required by the Code.
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MANAGEMENT
The management of NIF, including general supervision of the duties performed for the Funds by the Adviser under the Management Agreement, is the responsibility of the Board of Directors. The number of directors of NIF is ten, all of whom are not interested persons (referred to herein as “independent directors”). None of the independent directors has ever been a trustee, director or employee of, or consultant to, the Adviser or its affiliates. The names, business addresses and years of birth of the directors and officers of the Funds, their principal occupations and other affiliations during the past five years, the number of portfolios each director oversees and other directorships they hold are set forth below. Except as noted in the table below, the directors of NIF are directors or trustees, as the case may be, of 132 Nuveen-sponsored registered investment companies (the “Nuveen Funds”), which include 67 open-end mutual funds (the “Nuveen Mutual Funds”), 46 closed-end funds and 19 exchange-traded funds.
Name,
Business Address |
Position(s)
Held |
Term
of Office |
Principal
Occupation(s) |
Number
of |
Other | |
Independent Directors*: |
||||||
|
||||||
Jack
B. Evans |
Director |
Term—Indefinite** |
Chairman (since 2019), formerly, President (1996-2019), The Hall-Perrine Foundation (private philanthropic corporation); Life Trustee of Coe College; formerly, Director, Public Member, American Board of Orthopaedic Surgery (2015-2020); Director (1997-2003), Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago; President and Chief Operating Officer (1972-1995), SCI Financial Group, Inc. (regional financial services firm); Member and President Pro Tem of the Board of Regents for the State of Iowa University System (2007-2013); Director (1996-2015), The Gazette Company (media and publishing). |
132 |
Formerly, Director and Chairman (2009-2021), United Fire Group, a publicly held company; Director (2000-2004), Alliant Energy. | |
|
||||||
William
C. Hunter |
Director |
Term—Indefinite***
|
Dean Emeritus, formerly, Dean (2006-2012), Tippie College of Business, University of Iowa; past Director (2005-2015) and past President (2010-2014) of Beta Gamma Sigma, Inc., The International Business Honor Society; formerly, Director (1997-2007), Credit Research Center at Georgetown University; formerly, Dean and Distinguished Professor of Finance (2003-2006), School of Business at the University of Connecticut; previously, Senior Vice President and Director of Research (1995-2003) at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. |
132 |
Director (since 2009) of Wellmark, Inc.; formerly, Director (2004-2018) of Xerox Corporation. |
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Name,
Business Address |
Position(s)
Held |
Term
of Office |
Principal
Occupation(s) |
Number
of |
Other |
|
|||||
Amy
B. R. Lancellotta |
Director |
Term—Indefinite
|
Formerly, Managing Director, Independent Directors Council (IDC) (supports the fund independent director community and is part of the Investment Company Institute (ICI), which represents regulated investment companies) (2006-2019); formerly, various positions with ICI (1989-2006); President (since 2023) and Member (since 2020) of the Board of Directors, Jewish Coalition Against Domestic Abuse (JCADA). |
132 |
None |
|
|||||
Joanne
T. Medero |
Director |
Term—Indefinite
|
Formerly, Managing Director, Government Relations and Public Policy (2009-2020) and Senior Advisor to the Vice Chairman (2018-2020), BlackRock, Inc. (global investment management firm); formerly, Managing Director, Global Head of Government Relations and Public Policy, Barclays Group (IBIM) (investment banking, investment management and wealth management businesses) (2006-2009); formerly, Managing Director, Global General Counsel and Corporate Secretary, Barclays Global Investors (global investment management firm) (1996-2006); formerly, Partner, Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP (law firm) (1993-1995); formerly, General Counsel, Commodity Futures Trading Commission (government agency overseeing U.S. derivatives markets) (1989-1993); formerly, Deputy Associate Director/Associate Director for Legal and Financial Affairs, Office of Presidential Personnel, The White House (1986-1989); Member of the Board of Directors, Baltic-American Freedom Foundation (seeks to provide opportunities for citizens of the Baltic states to gain education and professional development through exchanges in the U.S.) (since 2019). |
132 |
None |
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Name,
Business Address |
Position(s)
Held |
Term
of Office |
Principal
Occupation(s) |
Number
of |
Other |
|
|||||
Albin
F. Moschner |
Director |
Term—Indefinite
|
Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Northcroft Partners, LLC (management consulting) (since 2012); previously, held positions at Leap Wireless International, Inc. (consumer wireless services), including Consultant (2011-2012), Chief Operating Officer (2008-2011) and Chief Marketing Officer (2004-2008); formerly, President, Verizon Card Services division of Verizon Communications, Inc. (telecommunication services) (2000-2003); formerly, President, One Point Services at One Point Communications (telecommunication services) (1999-2000); formerly, Vice Chairman of the Board, Diba, Incorporated (internet technology provider) (1996-1997); formerly, various executive positions (1991-1996) and Chief Executive Officer (1995-1996) of Zenith Electronics Corporation (consumer electronics). |
132 |
Formerly, Chairman (2019) and Director (2012-2019), USA Technologies, Inc., a provider of solutions and services to facilitate electronic payment transactions; formerly, Director, Wintrust Financial Corporation (1996-2016). |
|
|||||
John
K. Nelson |
Director |
Term—Indefinite
|
Member of Board of Directors of Core12 LLC (private firm which develops branding, marketing and communications strategies for clients) (since 2008); served on The President's Council of Fordham University (2010-2019) and previously a Director of the Curran Center for Catholic American Studies (2009-2018); formerly, senior external advisor to the Financial Services practice of Deloitte Consulting LLP (2012-2014); former Chair of the Board of Trustees of Marian University (2010-2014 as trustee, 2011-2014 as Chair); formerly Chief Executive Officer of ABN AMRO Bank N.V., North America, and Global Head of the Financial Markets Division (2007-2008), with various executive leadership roles in ABN AMRO Bank N.V. between 1996 and 2007. |
132 |
None |
|
|||||
|
S-44
Name,
Business Address |
Position(s)
Held |
Term
of Office |
Principal
Occupation(s) |
Number
of |
Other | |
Matthew
Thornton III |
Director |
Term—Indefinite
|
Formerly, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer (2018-2019), FedEx Freight Corporation, a subsidiary of FedEx Corporation (“FedEx”) (provider of transportation, e-commerce and business services through its portfolio of companies); formerly, Senior Vice President, U.S. Operations (2006-2018), Federal Express Corporation, a subsidiary of FedEx; formerly, Member of the Board of Directors (2012-2018), Safe Kids Worldwide® (a non-profit organization dedicated to preventing childhood injuries). |
132 |
Member of the Board of Directors (since 2014), The Sherwin-Williams Company (develops, manufactures, distributes and sells paints, coatings and related products); Member of the Board of Directors (since 2020), Crown Castle International (provider of communications infrastructure). | |
|
||||||
Terence
J. Toth |
Chair
of |
Term—Indefinite
|
Formerly, Co-Founding Partner, Promus Capital (investment advisory firm) (2008-2017); formerly, Director, Quality Control Corporation (manufacturing) (2012-2021); formerly, Director, Fulcrum IT Service LLC (information technology services firm to government entities) (2010-2019); formerly, Director, LogicMark LLC (health services) (2012-2016); formerly, Director, Legal & General Investment Management America, Inc. (asset management) (2008-2013); formerly, CEO and President, Northern Trust Global Investments (financial services) (2004-2007); Executive Vice President, Quantitative Management & Securities Lending (2000-2004); prior thereto, various positions with Northern Trust Company (financial services) (since 1994); Chair of the Board of the Kehrein Center for the Arts (philanthropy) (since 2021); Member, Catalyst Schools of Chicago Board (since 2008) and Mather Foundation Board (philanthropy) (since 2012), formerly, Chair of its Investment Committee (2017-2022); formerly, Member, Chicago Fellowship Board (philanthropy) (2005-2016); formerly, Member, Northern Trust Mutual Funds Board (2005-2007), Northern Trust Global Investments Board (2004-2007), Northern Trust Japan Board (2004-2007), Northern Trust Securities Inc. Board (2003-2007) and Northern Trust Hong Kong Board (1997-2004). |
132 |
None |
S-45
Name,
Business Address |
Position(s)
Held |
Term
of Office |
Principal
Occupation(s) |
Number
of |
Other |
|
|||||
Margaret
L. Wolff |
Director |
Term—Indefinite
|
Formerly, Of Counsel, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP (Mergers & Acquisitions Group) (legal services) (2005-2014); Member of the Board of Trustees of New York-Presbyterian Hospital (since 2005); Member (since 2004), formerly, Chair (2015-2022) of the Board of Trustees of The John A. Hartford Foundation (philanthropy dedicated to improving the care of older adults); formerly, Member (2005-2015) and Vice Chair (2011-2015) of the Board of Trustees of Mt. Holyoke College. |
132 |
Formerly, Member of the Board of Directors (2013-2017) of Travelers Insurance Company of Canada and The Dominion of Canada General Insurance Company (each, a part of Travelers Canada, the Canadian operation of The Travelers Companies, Inc.). |
|
|||||
Robert
L. Young |
Director |
Term—Indefinite
|
Formerly, Chief Operating Officer and Director, J.P. Morgan Investment Management Inc. (financial services) (2010-2016); formerly, President and Principal Executive Officer (2013-2016), and Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer (2005-2010), of J.P. Morgan Funds; formerly, Director and various officer positions for J.P. Morgan Investment Management Inc. (formerly, JPMorgan Funds Management, Inc. and formerly, One Group Administrative Services) and JPMorgan Distribution Services, Inc. (financial services) (formerly, One Group Dealer Services, Inc.) (1999-2017). |
132 |
None |
* As described in proxy materials delivered to fund shareholders in October 2023, in addition to the retirements of Mr. Evans and Dr. Hunter on December 31, 2023, the composition of the Board is anticipated to change effective January 1, 2024. Additional information concerning the changes will be forthcoming.
** Mr. Evans will retire from the Board as of December 31, 2023.
*** Dr. Hunter will retire from the Board as of December 31, 2023.
S-46
Name,
Business Address |
Position(s)
Held |
Term
of Office and Length of Time |
Principal Occupation(s) During Past Five Years |
Officers of NIF: |
|||
Brett
E. Black |
Vice President and Chief Compliance Officer |
Term—Until
August 2024 |
Managing Director, Chief Compliance Officer of Nuveen (since 2022); formerly, Vice President (2014-2022), Chief Compliance Officer and Anti-Money Laundering Compliance Officer (2017-2022), Deputy Chief Compliance Officer (2014-2017) of BMO Funds, Inc. |
Mark
J. Czarniecki |
Vice President and Secretary |
Term—Until
August 2024 |
Managing Director (since 2022), formerly, Vice President (2016-2022), and Assistant Secretary (since 2016) of Nuveen Securities, LLC; Managing Director (since 2022), formerly, Vice President (2017-2022) and Assistant Secretary (since 2017) of Nuveen Fund Advisors, LLC; Managing Director and Associate General Counsel (since January 2022), formerly, Vice President and Associate General Counsel of Nuveen (2013-2021); Managing Director (since 2022), formerly, Vice President (2018-2022), Assistant Secretary and Associate General Counsel (since 2018) of Nuveen Asset Management, LLC; Managing Director, Associate General Counsel and Assistant Secretary of Teachers Advisors, LLC and TIAA-CREF Investment Management, LLC (since 2023). |
Diana
R. Gonzalez |
Vice President and Assistant Secretary |
Term—Until
August 2024 |
Vice President and Assistant Secretary of Nuveen Fund Advisors, LLC (since 2017); Vice President, Associate General Counsel and Assistant Secretary of Nuveen Asset Management, LLC (since 2022); Vice President, Associate General Counsel and Assistant Secretary of Teachers Advisors, LLC and TIAA-CREF Investment Management, LLC (since 2023); Vice President and Associate General Counsel of Nuveen (since 2017); formerly, Associate General Counsel of Jackson National Asset Management (2012-2017). |
Nathaniel
T. Jones |
Vice President and Treasurer |
Term—Until
August 2024 |
Senior Managing Director (since 2021), formerly, Managing Director (2017-2021), Senior Vice President (2016-2017) of Nuveen; Managing Director (since 2015) of Nuveen Fund Advisors, LLC; Chartered Financial Analyst. |
Brian
H. Lawrence |
Vice President and Assistant Secretary |
Term—Until
August 2024 |
Vice President and Associate General Counsel of Nuveen (since 2023); Vice President, Associate General Counsel and Assistant Secretary (since 2023) of Teachers Advisors, LLC and TIAA-CREF Investment Management, LLC; formerly, Corporate Counsel of Franklin Templeton (2018-2022). |
Tina
M. Lazar |
Vice President |
Term—Until
August 2024 |
Managing Director (since 2017), formerly, Senior Vice President (2014-2017) of Nuveen Securities, LLC. |
Brian
J. Lockhart |
Vice President |
Term—Until
August 2024 |
Senior Managing Director (since 2021), formerly, Managing Director (2017-2021), Vice President (2010-2017) of Nuveen, Head of Investment Oversight (since 2017), formerly, Team Leader of Manager Oversight (2015-2017); Managing Director (since 2019), of Nuveen Fund Advisors, LLC; Chartered Financial Analyst and Certified Financial Risk Manager. |
S-47
Name,
Business Address |
Position(s)
Held |
Term
of Office and Length of Time |
Principal Occupation(s) During Past Five Years |
John
M. McCann |
Vice President and Assistant Secretary |
Term—Until
August 2024 |
Managing Director (since 2021), General Counsel and Secretary (since 2023), formerly, Assistant Secretary (2021-2023) of Nuveen Fund Advisors, LLC; Managing Director, Associate General Counsel and Assistant Secretary of Nuveen Asset Management, LLC (since 2021); Managing Director (since 2021) and Assistant Secretary (since 2016) of TIAA SMA Strategies LLC; Managing Director (since 2019, formerly, Vice President and Director), Associate General Counsel and Assistant Secretary of College Retirement Equities Fund, TIAA Separate Account VA-1, TIAA-CREF Funds and TIAA-CREF Life Funds; Managing Director (since 2018), formerly, Vice President and Director, Associate General Counsel and Assistant Secretary of Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America, Teacher Advisors LLC and TIAA-CREF Investment Management, LLC; Managing Director (since 2022), formerly, Vice President (2017-2022), Associate General Counsel and Assistant Secretary (since 2011) of Nuveen Alternative Advisors LLC; General Counsel and Assistant Secretary of Covariance Capital Management, Inc. (2014-2017). |
Kevin
J. McCarthy |
Vice President and Assistant Secretary |
Term—Until
August 2024 |
Executive Vice President (since 2022) and Secretary and General Counsel (since 2016) of Nuveen Investments, Inc., formerly, Senior Managing Director (2017-2022); Executive Vice President (since 2023) and Assistant Secretary (since 2008) of Nuveen Securities, LLC, formerly, Senior Managing Director (2017-2023); Executive Vice President and Assistant Secretary (since 2023) of Nuveen Fund Advisors, LLC, formerly, Senior Managing Director (2017-2023), Secretary (2016-2023) and Co-General Counsel (2011-2020); Executive Vice President (since 2023) and Secretary (since 2016) of Nuveen Asset Management, LLC, formerly, Senior Managing Director (2017-2023) and Associate General Counsel (2011-2020); Executive Vice President (since 2021) and Secretary (since 2023) of Teachers Advisors, LLC, formerly, General Counsel and Assistant Secretary; Executive Vice President (since 2017) and Secretary (since 2023) of TIAA-CREF Investment Management, LLC, formerly, General Counsel and Assistant Secretary (2017-2023; formerly, Vice President (2007-2021) and Secretary (2016-2021) of NWQ Investment Management Company, LLC and Santa Barbara Asset Management, LLC; Vice President and Secretary of Winslow Capital Management, LLC (since 2010); Executive Vice President (since 2023) and Secretary (since 2016) of Nuveen Alternative Investments, LLC, formerly, Senior Managing Director (2017-2023). |
Jon
Scott Meissner |
Vice President and Assistant Secretary |
Term—Until
August 2024 |
Managing Director, Mutual Fund Tax and Expense Administration (since 2022), formerly, Managing Director of Mutual Fund Tax and Financial Reporting groups (2017-2022) at Nuveen; Managing Director (since 2019) of Nuveen Fund Advisors, LLC; Managing Director (since 2021), formerly, Senior Director (2016-2021) of Teachers Advisors, LLC and TIAA-CREF Investment Management, LLC; Managing Director, Mutual Fund and Tax Expense Administration (since 2022), formerly, Senior Director Mutual Fund Taxation (2015-2022) to the TIAA-CREF Funds, the TIAA-CREF Life Funds, the TIAA Separate Account VA-1 and the CREF Accounts; has held various positions with TIAA since 2004. |
Justin
M. Pfaff |
Chief Administrative Officer |
Term—Until
August 2024 |
Managing Director, Advisory Product, Nuveen (since 2016); Chartered Financial Analyst. |
William
A. Siffermann |
Vice President |
Term—Until
August 2024 |
Managing Director (since 2017), formerly Senior Vice President (2016-2017) of Nuveen. |
S-48
Name,
Business Address |
Position(s)
Held |
Term
of Office and Length of Time |
Principal Occupation(s) During Past Five Years |
E.
Scott Wickerham |
Vice President and Controller |
Term—Until
August 2024 |
Senior Managing Director, Head of Public Investment Finance of Nuveen (since 2019), formerly, Managing Director; Senior Managing Director (since 2019) of Nuveen Fund Advisors, LLC; Senior Managing Director (since 2022) of Nuveen Asset Management, LLC; Senior Managing Director of Teachers Advisors, LLC (since 2021) and TIAA-CREF Investment Management, LLC (since 2016); Principal Financial Officer, Principal Accounting Officer and Treasurer (since 2017) of the TIAA-CREF Funds, the TIAA-CREF Life Funds, the TIAA Separate Account VA-1 and the Principal Financial Officer, Principal Accounting Officer (since 2020) and Treasurer (since 2017) to the CREF Accounts; has held various positions with TIAA since 2006. |
Mark
L. Winget |
Vice President and Assistant Secretary |
Term—Until
August 2024 |
Vice President and Assistant Secretary of Nuveen Securities, LLC (since 2008); Vice President and Assistant Secretary of Nuveen Fund Advisors, LLC (since 2019); Vice President, Associate General Counsel and Assistant Secretary of Teachers Advisors, LLC and TIAA-CREF Investment Management, LLC (since 2023) and Nuveen Asset Management, LLC (since 2020); Vice President (since 2010) and Associate General Counsel (since 2019) of Nuveen. |
Rachael
M. Zufall |
Vice President and Assistant Secretary |
Term—Until
August 2024 |
Managing Director and Assistant Secretary (since 2023) of Nuveen Fund Advisors, LLC; Managing Director (since 2017), Associate General Counsel and Assistant Secretary (since 2014) of the CREF Accounts, TIAA Separate Account VA-1, TIAA-CREF Funds and TIAA-CREF Life Funds; Managing Director (since 2017), Associate General Counsel and Assistant Secretary (since 2011) of Teachers Advisors, LLC and TIAA-CREF Investment Management, LLC; Managing Director of Nuveen, LLC and of TIAA (since 2017). |
Board Leadership Structure and Risk Oversight
The Board of Directors or the Board of Trustees (as the case may be, each is referred to hereafter as the “Board” or “Board of Directors” and the directors or trustees of the Nuveen Funds, as applicable, are each referred to herein as “directors”) oversees the operations and management of the Nuveen Funds, including the duties performed for the Nuveen Funds by the Adviser. The Board has adopted a unitary board structure. A unitary board consists of one group of directors who serve on the board of every fund in the Nuveen Fund complex. In adopting a unitary board structure, the directors seek to provide effective governance through establishing a board, the overall composition of which will, as a body, possess the appropriate skills, diversity (including, among other things, gender, race and ethnicity), independence and experience to oversee the Nuveen Funds’ business. With this overall framework in mind, when the Board, through its Nominating and Governance Committee discussed below, seeks nominees for the Board, the directors consider, not only the candidate’s particular background, skills and experience, among other things, but also whether such background, skills and experience enhance the Board’s diversity and at the same time complement the Board given its current composition and the mix of skills and experiences of the incumbent directors. The Nominating and Governance Committee believes that the Board generally benefits from diversity of background (including, among other things, gender, race and ethnicity), skills, experience and views among its members, and considers this a factor in evaluating the composition of the Board, but has not adopted any specific policy on diversity or any particular definition of diversity.
The Board believes the unitary board structure enhances good and effective governance, particularly given the nature of the structure of the investment company complex. Funds in the same complex generally are served by the same service providers and personnel and are governed by the same regulatory scheme which raises common issues that must be addressed by the directors across the fund complex (such as compliance, valuation, liquidity, brokerage, trade allocation or risk management). The Board believes it is more efficient to have a single board review and oversee common policies and procedures which increases the Board’s knowledge and expertise with respect to the many aspects of fund operations that are complex-wide in nature. The unitary structure also enhances the Board’s influence and oversight over the investment adviser and other service providers.
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In an effort to enhance the independence of the Board, the Board also has a Chair that is an independent director. The Board recognizes that a chair can perform an important role in setting the agenda for the Board, establishing the boardroom culture, establishing a point person on behalf of the Board for fund management, and reinforcing the Board’s focus on the long-term interests of shareholders. The Board recognizes that a chair may be able to better perform these functions without any conflicts of interests arising from a position with fund management. Accordingly, the directors have elected Mr. Toth to serve as the independent Chair of the Board. Specific responsibilities of the Chair include: (i) presiding at all meetings of the Board and of the shareholders; (ii) seeing that all orders and resolutions of the directors are carried into effect; and (iii) maintaining records of and, whenever necessary, certifying all proceedings of the directors and the shareholders.
Although the Board has direct responsibility over various matters (such as advisory contracts and underwriting contracts), the Board also exercises certain of its oversight responsibilities through several committees that it has established and which report back to the full Board. The Board believes that a committee structure is an effective means to permit directors to focus on particular operations or issues affecting the Nuveen Funds, including risk oversight. More specifically, with respect to risk oversight, the Board has delegated matters relating to valuation, compliance and investment risk to certain committees (as summarized below). In addition, the Board believes that the periodic rotation of directors among the different committees allows the directors to gain additional and different perspectives of a Nuveen Fund’s operations. The Board has established seven standing committees: the Executive Committee, the Dividend Committee, the Audit Committee, the Compliance, Risk Management and Regulatory Oversight Committee, the Nominating and Governance Committee, the Investment Committee and the Open-End Funds Committee. The Board may also from time to time create ad hoc committees to focus on particular issues as the need arises. The membership and functions of the standing committees are summarized below. For more information on the Board, please visit www.nuveen.com/fundgovernance.
The Executive Committee, which meets between regular meetings of the Board, is authorized to exercise all of the powers of the Board. The members of the Executive Committee are Mr. Toth, Chair, Mr. Nelson and Mr. Young. During the fiscal year ended August 31, 2023, the Executive Committee did not meet.
The Audit Committee assists the Board in the oversight and monitoring of the accounting and reporting policies, processes and practices of the Nuveen Funds, and the audits of the financial statements of the Nuveen Funds; the quality and integrity of the financial statements of the Nuveen Funds; the Nuveen Funds’ compliance with legal and regulatory requirements relating to the Nuveen Funds’ financial statements; the independent auditors’ qualifications, performance and independence; and the pricing procedures of the Nuveen Funds and the Adviser’s internal valuation group. It is the responsibility of the Audit Committee to select, evaluate and replace any independent auditors (subject only to Board and, if applicable, shareholder ratification) and to determine their compensation. The Audit Committee is also responsible for, among other things, overseeing the valuation of securities comprising the Nuveen Funds’ portfolios. Subject to the Adviser’s general supervision of such actions through its role as valuation designee, the Audit Committee addresses any valuation issues, oversees the Nuveen Funds’ pricing procedures and actions taken by the Adviser’s internal valuation group which provides regular reports to the committee, reviews any issues relating to the valuation of the Nuveen Funds’ securities brought to its attention and considers the risks to the Nuveen Funds in assessing the possible resolutions to these matters. The Audit Committee may also consider any financial risk exposures for the Nuveen Funds in conjunction with performing its functions.
To fulfill its oversight duties, the Audit Committee receives annual and semi-annual reports and has regular meetings with the external auditors for the Nuveen Funds and the Adviser’s internal audit group. The Audit Committee also may review in a general manner the processes the Board or other Board committees have in place with respect to risk assessment and risk management as well as compliance with legal and regulatory matters relating to the Nuveen Funds’ financial statements. The committee operates under a written charter adopted and approved by the Board. Members of the Audit Committee shall be independent (as set forth in the charter) and free of any relationship that, in the opinion of the directors, would interfere with their exercise of independent judgment as an Audit Committee member. The members of the Audit Committee are Mr. Nelson, Chair, Mr. Evans, Mr. Moschner, Ms. Wolff and Mr. Young, each of whom is an independent director of the Nuveen Funds. During the fiscal year ended August 31, 2023, the Audit Committee met 13 times.
The Nominating and Governance Committee is responsible for seeking, identifying and recommending to the Board qualified candidates for election or appointment to the Board. In addition, the
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Nominating and Governance Committee oversees matters of corporate governance, including the evaluation of Board performance and processes, the assignment and rotation of committee members, and the establishment of corporate governance guidelines and procedures, to the extent necessary or desirable, and matters related thereto. Although the unitary and committee structure has been developed over the years and the Nominating and Governance Committee believes the structure has provided efficient and effective governance, the committee recognizes that as demands on the Board evolve over time (such as through an increase in the number of funds overseen or an increase in the complexity of the issues raised), the committee must continue to evaluate the Board and committee structures and their processes and modify the foregoing as may be necessary or appropriate to continue to provide effective governance. Accordingly, the Nominating and Governance Committee has a separate meeting each year to, among other things, review the Board and committee structures, their performance and functions, and recommend any modifications thereto or alternative structures or processes that would enhance the Board’s governance of the Nuveen Funds.
In addition, the Nominating and Governance Committee, among other things, makes recommendations concerning the continuing education of directors; monitors performance of legal counsel and other service providers; establishes and monitors a process by which security holders are able to communicate in writing with members of the Board; and periodically reviews and makes recommendations about any appropriate changes to director compensation. In the event of a vacancy on the Board, the Nominating and Governance Committee receives suggestions from various sources, including shareholders, as to suitable candidates. Suggestions should be sent in writing to William Siffermann, Manager of Fund Board Relations, Nuveen, LLC, 333 West Wacker Drive, Chicago, IL 60606. The Nominating and Governance Committee sets appropriate standards and requirements for nominations for new directors and reserves the right to interview any and all candidates and to make the final selection of any new directors. In considering a candidate’s qualifications, each candidate must meet certain basic requirements, including relevant skills and experience, time availability (including the time requirements for due diligence meetings to sub-advisers and service providers) and, if qualifying as an independent director candidate, independence from the Adviser, the Sub-Adviser, the Distributor and other service providers, including any affiliates of these entities. These skill and experience requirements may vary depending on the current composition of the Board, since the goal is to ensure an appropriate range of skills, diversity and experience, in the aggregate. Accordingly, the particular factors considered and weight given to these factors will depend on the composition of the Board and the skills and backgrounds of the incumbent directors at the time of consideration of the nominees. All candidates, however, must meet high expectations of personal integrity, independence, governance experience and professional competence. All candidates must be willing to be critical within the Board and with management and yet maintain a collegial and collaborative manner toward other Board members. The committee operates under a written charter adopted and approved by the Board. This committee is composed of the independent directors of the Nuveen Funds. Accordingly, the members of the Nominating and Governance Committee are Mr. Toth, Chair, Mr. Evans, Dr. Hunter, Ms. Lancellotta, Ms. Medero, Mr. Moschner, Mr. Nelson, Mr. Thornton, Ms. Wolff and Mr. Young. During the fiscal year ended August 31, 2023, the Nominating and Governance Committee met six times.
The Dividend Committee is authorized to declare distributions on the Nuveen Funds’ shares, including, but not limited to, regular and special dividends, capital gains and ordinary income distributions. The members of the Dividend Committee are Mr. Young, Chair, Ms. Lancellotta, Mr. Nelson and Mr. Thornton. During the fiscal year ended August 31, 2023, the Dividend Committee met four times.
The Compliance, Risk Management and Regulatory Oversight Committee (the “Compliance Committee”) is responsible for the oversight of compliance issues, risk management and other regulatory matters affecting the Nuveen Funds that are not otherwise the jurisdiction of the other committees. The Board has adopted and periodically reviews policies and procedures designed to address the Nuveen Funds’ compliance and risk matters. As part of its duties, the Compliance Committee reviews the policies and procedures relating to compliance matters and recommends modifications thereto as necessary or appropriate to the full Board; develops new policies and procedures as new regulatory matters affecting the Nuveen Funds arise from time to time; evaluates or considers any comments or reports from examinations from regulatory authorities and responses thereto; and performs any special reviews, investigations or other oversight responsibilities relating to risk management, compliance and/or regulatory matters as requested by the Board.
In addition, the Compliance Committee is responsible for risk oversight, including, but not limited to, the oversight of general risks related to investments which are not reviewed by other committees, such as
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liquidity and derivatives usage; risks related to product structure elements, such as leverage; techniques that may be used to address the foregoing risks, such as hedging and swaps and Fund operational risk and risks related to the overall operation of the Nuveen enterprise and, in each case, the controls designed to address or mitigate such risks. In assessing issues brought to the committee’s attention or in reviewing a particular policy, procedure, investment technique or strategy, the Compliance Committee evaluates the risks to the Nuveen Funds in adopting a particular approach compared to the anticipated benefits to the Nuveen Funds and their shareholders. In fulfilling its obligations, the Compliance Committee meets on a quarterly basis, and at least once a year in person. The Compliance Committee receives written and oral reports from the Nuveen Funds’ Chief Compliance Officer (“CCO”) and meets privately with the CCO at each of its quarterly meetings. The CCO also provides an annual report to the full Board regarding the operations of the Nuveen Funds’ and other service providers’ compliance programs as well as any recommendations for modifications thereto. Matters not addressed at the committee level are addressed directly by the full Board. The committee operates under a written charter adopted and approved by the Board. The members of the Compliance Committee are Ms. Wolff, Chair, Dr. Hunter, Ms. Lancellotta, Ms. Medero, Mr. Thornton and Mr. Toth. During the fiscal year ended August 31, 2023, the Compliance Committee met four times.
The Investment Committee is responsible for the oversight of Nuveen Fund performance, investment risk management and other portfolio-related matters affecting the Nuveen Funds which are not otherwise the jurisdiction of the other Board committees. As part of such oversight, the Investment Committee reviews each Nuveen Fund’s investment performance and investment risks, which may include, but is not limited to, an evaluation of Nuveen Fund performance relative to investment objectives, benchmarks and peer group; a review of risks related to portfolio investments, such as exposures to particular issuers, market sectors, or types of securities, as well as consideration of other factors that could impact or are related to Nuveen Fund performance; and an assessment of Nuveen Fund objectives, policies and practices as such may relate to Nuveen Fund performance. In assessing issues brought to the committee’s attention or in reviewing an investment policy, technique or strategy, the Investment Committee evaluates the risks to the Nuveen Funds in adopting or recommending a particular approach or resolution compared to the anticipated benefits to the Nuveen Funds and their shareholders.
In fulfilling its obligations, the Investment Committee receives quarterly reports from the investment oversight and the investment risk groups at Nuveen. Such groups also report to the full Board on a quarterly basis and the full Board participates in further discussions with fund management at its quarterly meetings regarding matters relating to Nuveen Fund performance and investment risks, including with respect to the various drivers of performance and Nuveen Fund use of leverage and hedging. Accordingly, the Board directly and/or in conjunction with the Investment Committee oversees the investment performance and investment risk management of the Nuveen Funds. The Investment Committee operates under a written charter adopted and approved by the Board. This committee is composed of the independent directors of the Nuveen Funds. Accordingly, the members of the Investment Committee are Dr. Hunter, Chair, Mr. Evans, Ms. Lancellotta, Ms. Medero, Mr. Moschner, Mr. Nelson, Mr. Thornton, Mr. Toth, Ms. Wolff and Mr. Young. During the fiscal year ended August 31, 2023, the Investment Committee met three times.
The Open-End Funds Committee is responsible for assisting the Board in the oversight and monitoring of the Nuveen Funds that are registered as open-end management investment companies (“Open-End Funds”). The committee may review and evaluate matters related to the formation and the initial presentation to the Board of any new Open-End Fund and may review and evaluate any matters relating to any existing Open-End Fund. The committee operates under a written charter adopted and approved by the Board. The members of the Open-End Funds Committee are Mr. Moschner, Chair, Ms. Medero, Mr. Thornton, Mr. Toth and Mr. Young. During the fiscal year ended August 31, 2023, the Open-End Funds Committee met four times.
Board Diversification and Director Qualifications
In determining that a particular director was qualified to serve on the Board, the Board has considered each director’s background, skills, experience and other attributes in light of the composition of the Board with no particular factor controlling. The Board believes that directors need to have the ability to critically review, evaluate, question and discuss information provided to them, and to interact effectively with Fund management, service providers and counsel, in order to exercise effective business judgment in the performance of their duties, and the Board believes each director satisfies this standard. An effective director may achieve this ability through his or her educational background; business, professional training or practice; public service or academic positions; experience from service as a board member or
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executive of investment funds, public companies or significant private or not-for-profit entities or other organizations; and/or other life experiences. Accordingly, set forth below is a summary of the experiences, qualifications, attributes, and skills that led to the conclusion, as of the date of this document, that each director should continue to serve in that capacity. References to the experiences, qualifications, attributes and skills of directors are pursuant to requirements of the SEC, do not constitute holding out of the Board or any director as having any special expertise or experience and shall not impose any greater responsibility or liability on any such person or on the Board by reason thereof.
Jack B. Evans
Mr. Evans has served as Chairman (since 2019) and President (1996-2019) of the Hall-Perrine Foundation, a private philanthropic corporation. Mr. Evans was formerly President and Chief Operating Officer (1972-1995) of the SCI Financial Group, Inc., a regional financial services firm headquartered in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. He was a member of the Board of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago from 1997 to 2003 as well as a Director of Alliant Energy from 2000 to 2004 and Member and President Pro Tem of the Board of Regents for the State of Iowa University System from 2007 to 2013. Mr. Evans is a Life Trustee of Coe College and formerly served as Chairman of the Board of United Fire Group from 2009 to 2021, served as a Director and Public Member of the American Board of Orthopaedic Surgery from 2015 to 2020 and served on the Board of The Gazette Company from 1996 to 2015. He has a Bachelor of Arts from Coe College and an M.B.A. from the University of Iowa.
William C. Hunter
Dr. Hunter became Dean Emeritus of the Henry B. Tippie College of Business at the University of Iowa in 2012, after having served as Dean of the College since July 2006. He had been Dean and Distinguished Professor of Finance at the University of Connecticut School of Business from 2003 to 2006. From 1995 to 2003, he was the Senior Vice President and Director of Research at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. He has held faculty positions at Emory University, Atlanta University, the University of Georgia and Northwestern University. He has consulted with numerous foreign central banks and official agencies in Europe, Asia, Central America and South America. He has been a Director of Wellmark, Inc. since 2009. He is a past Director (2005-2015) and a past President (2010-2014) of Beta Gamma Sigma, Inc., The International Business Honor Society and a past Director (2004-2018) of the Xerox Corporation. Dr. Hunter received his PhD (1978) and MBA (1970) from Northwestern University and his BS from Hampton University (1970).
Amy B.R. Lancellotta
After 30 years of service, Ms. Lancellotta retired at the end of 2019 from the Investment Company Institute (ICI), which represents regulated investment companies on regulatory, legislative and securities industry initiatives that affect funds and their shareholders. From November 2006 until her retirement, Ms. Lancellotta served as Managing Director of ICI’s Independent Directors Council (IDC), which supports fund independent directors in fulfilling their responsibilities to promote and protect the interests of fund shareholders. At IDC, Ms. Lancellotta was responsible for all ICI and IDC activities relating to the fund independent director community. In conjunction with her responsibilities, Ms. Lancellotta advised and represented IDC, ICI, independent directors and the investment company industry on issues relating to fund governance and the role of fund directors. She also directed and coordinated IDC’s education, communication, governance and policy initiatives. Prior to serving as Managing Director of IDC, Ms. Lancellotta held various other positions with ICI beginning in 1989. Before joining ICI, Ms. Lancellotta was an associate at two Washington, D.C. law firms. In addition, she has been President, since 2023, and a member, since 2020, of the Board of Directors of the Jewish Coalition Against Domestic Abuse (JCADA), an organization that seeks to end power-based violence, empower survivors and ensure safe communities. Ms. Lancellotta received a B.A. degree from Pennsylvania State University in 1981 and a J.D. degree from the National Law Center, George Washington University (currently known as George Washington University Law School) in 1984.
Joanne T. Medero
Ms. Medero has over 30 years of financial services experience and, most recently, from December 2009 until her retirement in July 2020, she was a Managing Director in the Government Relations and Public Policy Group at BlackRock, Inc. (BlackRock). From July 2018 to July 2020, she was also Senior Advisor to BlackRock’s Vice Chairman, focusing on public policy and corporate governance issues. In 1996, Ms. Medero joined Barclays Global Investors (BGI), which merged with BlackRock in 2009. At BGI, she was a Managing Director and served as Global General Counsel and Corporate Secretary until 2006. Then, from 2006 to 2009, Ms. Medero was a Managing Director and Global Head of Government
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Relations and Public Policy at Barclays Group (IBIM), where she provided policy guidance and directed legislative and regulatory advocacy programs for the investment banking, investment management and wealth management businesses. Before joining BGI, Ms. Medero was a Partner at Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP from 1993 to 1995, where she specialized in derivatives and financial markets regulation issues. Additionally, she served as General Counsel of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) from 1989 to 1993 and, from 1986 to 1989, she was Deputy Associate Director/Associate Director for Legal and Financial Affairs at The White House Office of Presidential Personnel. Further, from 2006 to 2010, Ms. Medero was a member of the CFTC Global Markets Advisory Committee and she has been actively involved in financial industry associations, serving as Chair of the Steering Committee of the SIFMA (Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association) Asset Management Group (2016-2018) and Chair of the CTA (Commodity Trading Advisor), CPO (Commodity Pool Operator) and Futures Committee of the Managed Funds Association (2010-2012). Ms. Medero also chaired the Corporations, Antitrust and Securities Practice Group of The Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy (from 2010 to 2022 and 2000 to 2002). In addition, since 2019, she has been a member of the Board of Directors of the Baltic-American Freedom Foundation, which seeks to provide opportunities for citizens of the Baltic States to gain education and professional development through exchanges in the United States. Ms. Medero received a B.A. degree from St. Lawrence University in 1975 and a J.D. degree from the National Law Center, George Washington University (currently known as George Washington University Law School) in 1978.
Albin F. Moschner
Mr. Moschner is a consultant in the wireless industry and, in July 2012, founded Northcroft Partners, LLC, a management consulting firm that provides operational, management and governance solutions. Prior to founding Northcroft Partners, LLC, Mr. Moschner held various positions at Leap Wireless International, Inc., a provider of wireless services, where he was a consultant from February 2011 to July 2012, Chief Operating Officer from July 2008 to February 2011, and Chief Marketing Officer from August 2004 to June 2008. Before he joined Leap Wireless International, Inc., Mr. Moschner was President of the Verizon Card Services division of Verizon Communications, Inc. from 2000 to 2003, and President of One Point Services at One Point Communications from 1999 to 2000. Mr. Moschner also served at Zenith Electronics Corporation as Director, President and Chief Executive Officer from 1995 to 1996, and as Director, President and Chief Operating Officer from 1994 to 1995. Mr. Moschner was Chairman of the Board (2019) and a member of the Board of Directors (2012-2019) of USA Technologies, Inc. and, from 1996 until 2016, he was a member of the Board of Directors of Wintrust Financial Corporation. In addition, he is emeritus (since 2018) of the Advisory Boards of the Kellogg School of Management (1995-2018) and the Archdiocese of Chicago Financial Council (2012-2018). Mr. Moschner received a Bachelor of Engineering degree in Electrical Engineering from The City College of New York in 1974 and a Master of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from Syracuse University in 1979.
John K. Nelson
Mr. Nelson is on the Board of Directors of Core12, LLC (since 2008), a private firm that develops branding, marketing, and communications strategies for clients. Mr. Nelson has extensive experience in global banking and markets, having served in several senior executive positions with ABN AMRO Holdings N.V. and its affiliated entities and predecessors, including LaSalle Bank Corporation from 1996 to 2008, ultimately serving as Chief Executive Officer of ABN AMRO N.V. North America. During his tenure at the bank, he also served as Global Head of its Financial Markets Division, which encompassed the bank's Currency, Commodity, Fixed Income, Emerging Markets, and Derivatives businesses. He was a member of the Foreign Exchange Committee of the Federal Reserve Bank of the United States and during his tenure with ABN AMRO served as the bank's representative on various committees of The Bank of Canada, European Central Bank, and The Bank of England. Mr. Nelson previously served as a senior, external advisor to the financial services practice of Deloitte Consulting LLP (2012-2014). At Fordham University, he served as a director of The President's Council (2010- 2019) and previously served as a director of The Curran Center for Catholic American Studies (2009-2018). He served as a trustee and Chairman of The Board of Trustees of Marian University (2011-2013). Mr. Nelson is a graduate of Fordham University, holding a BA in Economics and an MBA in Finance.
Matthew Thornton III
Mr. Thornton has over 40 years of broad leadership and operating experience from his career with FedEx Corporation (“FedEx”), which, through its portfolio of companies, provides transportation, e-commerce and business services. In November 2019, Mr. Thornton retired as Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of FedEx Freight Corporation (FedEx Freight), a subsidiary of FedEx, where,
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from May 2018 until his retirement, he had been responsible for day-to-day operations, strategic guidance, modernization of freight operations and delivering innovative customer solutions. From September 2006 to May 2018, Mr. Thornton served as Senior Vice President, U.S. Operations at Federal Express Corporation (FedEx Express), a subsidiary of FedEx. Prior to September 2006, Mr. Thornton held a range of positions of increasing responsibility with FedEx, including various management positions. In addition, Mr. Thornton currently (since 2014) serves on the Board of Directors of The Sherwin-Williams Company, where he is a member of the Audit Committee and the Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee, and the Board of Directors of Crown Castle International (since 2020), where he is a member of the Strategy Committee and the Compensation Committee. Formerly (2012-2018), he was a member of the Board of Directors of Safe Kids Worldwide®, a non-profit organization dedicated to the prevention of childhood injuries. Mr. Thornton is a member (since 2014) of the Executive Leadership Council (ELC), the nation’s premier organization of global black senior executives. He is also a member of the National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD). Mr. Thornton has been recognized by Black Enterprise on its 2017 list of the Most Powerful Executives in Corporate America and by Ebony on its 2016 Power 100 list of the world’s most influential and inspiring African Americans. Mr. Thornton received a B.B.A. degree from the University of Memphis in 1980 and an M.B.A. from the University of Tennessee in 2001.
Terence J. Toth
Mr. Toth, the Nuveen Funds’ Independent Chair, was a Co-Founding Partner of Promus Capital (2008-2017). From 2012 to 2021, he was a Director of Quality Control Corporation, from 2010 to 2019, he was a Director of Fulcrum IT Service LLC and from 2012 to 2016, he was a Director of LogicMark LLC. From 2008 to 2013, he was a Director of Legal & General Investment Management America, Inc. From 2004 to 2007, he was Chief Executive Officer and President of Northern Trust Global Investments, and Executive Vice President of Quantitative Management & Securities Lending from 2000 to 2004. He also formerly served on the Board of the Northern Trust Mutual Funds. He joined Northern Trust in 1994 after serving as Managing Director and Head of Global Securities Lending at Bankers Trust (1986 to 1994) and Head of Government Trading and Cash Collateral Investment at Northern Trust from 1982 to 1986. He currently serves as Chair of the Board of the Kehrein Center for the Arts (since 2021) and is on the Board of Catalyst Schools of Chicago (since 2008). He is on the Mather Foundation Board (since 2012) and was Chair of its Investment Committee from 2017 to 2022. Mr. Toth graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Illinois, and received his MBA from New York University. In 2005, he graduated from the CEO Perspectives Program at Northwestern University.
Margaret L. Wolff
Ms. Wolff retired from Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP in 2014 after more than 30 years of providing client service in the Mergers & Acquisitions Group. During her legal career, Ms. Wolff devoted significant time to advising boards and senior management on U.S. and international corporate, securities, regulatory and strategic matters, including governance, shareholder, fiduciary, operational and management issues. From 2013 to 2017, she was a Board member of Travelers Insurance Company of Canada and The Dominion of Canada General Insurance Company (each of which is a part of Travelers Canada, the Canadian operation of The Travelers Companies, Inc.). Ms. Wolff has been a trustee of New York-Presbyterian Hospital since 2005 and, since 2004, she has served as a trustee of The John A. Hartford Foundation (a philanthropy dedicated to improving the care of older adults) where she formerly served as Chair from 2015 to 2022. From 2005 to 2015, she was a trustee of Mt. Holyoke College and served as Vice Chair of the Board from 2011 to 2015. Ms. Wolff received her Bachelor of Arts from Mt. Holyoke College and her Juris Doctor from Case Western Reserve University School of Law.
Robert L. Young
Mr. Young has more than 30 years of experience in the investment management industry. From 1997 to 2017, he held various positions with J.P. Morgan Investment Management Inc. (“J.P. Morgan Investment”) and its affiliates (collectively, “J.P. Morgan”). Most recently, he served as Chief Operating Officer and Director of J.P. Morgan Investment (from 2010 to 2016) and as President and Principal Executive Officer of the J.P. Morgan Funds (from 2013 to 2016). As Chief Operating Officer of J.P. Morgan Investment, Mr. Young led service, administration and business platform support activities for J.P. Morgan’s domestic retail mutual fund and institutional commingled and separate account businesses, and co-led these activities for J.P. Morgan’s global retail and institutional investment management businesses. As President of the J.P. Morgan Funds, Mr. Young interacted with various service providers to these funds, facilitated the relationship between such funds and their boards, and was directly involved in establishing board agendas, addressing regulatory matters, and establishing policies and procedures. Before joining J.P. Morgan, Mr. Young, a former Certified Public Accountant (CPA), was a Senior
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Manager (Audit) with Deloitte & Touche LLP (formerly, Touche Ross LLP), where he was employed from 1985 to 1996. During his tenure there, he actively participated in creating, and ultimately led, the firm’s midwestern mutual fund practice. Mr. Young holds a Bachelor of Business Administration degree in Accounting from the University of Dayton and, from 2008 to 2011, he served on the Investment Committee of its Board of Trustees.
Board Compensation
The following table shows, for each independent director, (1) the aggregate compensation (including deferred amounts), as well as any amounts related to special, ad hoc committees that are temporary in nature and not expected to be long-term, ongoing compensation, paid by the Funds for the fiscal year ended August 31, 2023, (2) the amount of total compensation paid by the Funds that has been deferred, and (3) the total compensation (including deferred amounts), as well as any amounts related to special, ad hoc committees that are temporary in nature and not expected to be long-term, ongoing compensation, paid to each director by the Nuveen Funds during the fiscal year ended August 31, 2023. Pursuant to the Board’s deferred compensation plan, a portion of the independent directors’ compensation may be deferred and treated as though an equivalent dollar amount has been invested in shares of one or more eligible Nuveen Funds. The amount of total compensation that has been deferred provided below represents the total deferred fees payable from the Funds.
Name of Director |
Aggregate |
Amount
of Total |
Total
Compensation |
|||||||||||||
Jack B. Evans |
$ |
2,266 |
$ |
232 |
$ |
400,455 |
||||||||||
William C. Hunter |
2,239 |
— |
396,000 |
|||||||||||||
Amy B. R. Lancellotta |
2,121 |
692 |
378,128 |
|||||||||||||
Joanne T. Medero |
2,117 |
1,052 |
377,713 |
|||||||||||||
Albin F. Moschner |
2,486 |
— |
445,500 |
|||||||||||||
John K. Nelson |
2,371 |
— |
374,850 |
|||||||||||||
Judith M. Stockdale1 |
2,044 |
1,632 |
365,329 |
|||||||||||||
Carole E. Stone2 |
1,876 |
576 |
328,628 |
|||||||||||||
Matthew Thornton III |
2,189 |
— |
395,000 |
|||||||||||||
Terence J. Toth |
3,135 |
— |
554,750 |
|||||||||||||
Margaret L. Wolff |
2,343 |
1,162 |
419,579 |
|||||||||||||
Robert L. Young |
2,594 |
1,903 |
473,615 |
1 Ms. Stockdale retired as Director of the Nuveen Funds on December 31, 2022.
2 Ms. Stone retired as Director of the Nuveen Funds on December 31, 2022.
Prior to January 1, 2023, independent directors received a $205,000 annual retainer, plus they received (a) a fee of $7,000 per day for attendance in person or by telephone at regularly scheduled meetings of the Board; (b) a fee of $3,000 per meeting for attendance in person or by telephone at special, non-regularly scheduled Board meetings where in-person attendance was required and $3,000 per meeting for attendance by telephone or in person at such meetings where in-person attendance was not required; (c) a fee of $2,500 per meeting for attendance in person or by telephone at Audit Committee meetings where in-person attendance was required and $2,250 per meeting for attendance by telephone or in person at such meetings where in-person attendance was not required; (d) a fee of $5,000 per meeting for attendance in person or by telephone at Compliance, Risk Management and Regulatory Oversight Committee meetings where in-person attendance was required and $2,000 per meeting for attendance by telephone or in person at such meetings where in-person attendance was not required; (e) a fee of $1,250 per meeting for attendance in person or by telephone at Dividend Committee meetings; (f) a fee of $500 per meeting for attendance in person or by telephone at all other committee meetings ($1,000 for shareholder meetings) where in-person attendance was required and $250 per meeting for attendance by telephone or in person at such committee meetings (excluding shareholder meetings) where in-person attendance was not required, and $100 per meeting when the Executive Committee acted as pricing committee for IPOs, plus, in each case, expenses incurred in attending such meetings, provided that no fees were received for meetings held on days on which regularly scheduled Board meetings were held; and (g) a fee of $2,500 per meeting for attendance in person or by telephone at Open-End Funds Committee meetings where in-person attendance was required and $2,000 per meeting for attendance by telephone or in person at such meetings where in-person attendance was not required; provided that no fees were received for meetings held on days on which regularly scheduled Board meetings were held. In addition to the payments described above, the Chair of the Board received
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$125,000, and the chairpersons of the Audit Committee, the Dividend Committee, the Compliance, Risk Management and Regulatory Oversight Committee, the Nominating and Governance Committee and the Open-End Funds Committee received $20,000 each as additional retainers. Independent directors also received a fee of $3,500 per day for site visits to entities that provide services to the Nuveen Funds on days on which no Board meeting was held. When ad hoc committees are organized, the Nominating and Governance Committee at the time of formation determined compensation to be paid to the members of such committee; however, in general, such fees were $1,000 per meeting for attendance in person or by telephone at ad hoc committee meetings where in-person attendance was required and $500 per meeting for attendance by telephone or in person at such meetings where in-person attendance was not required. Any compensation paid to the independent directors as members of ad hoc committees is temporary in nature and not expected to be long-term, ongoing compensation. The annual retainer, fees and expenses were allocated among the Nuveen Funds on the basis of relative net assets, although management may have, in its discretion, established a minimum amount to be allocated to each fund. In certain instances fees and expenses were allocated only to those Nuveen Funds that were discussed at a given meeting. In certain circumstances, such as during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Board may have held in-person meetings by telephonic or videographic means and were compensated at the in-person rate.
Effective January 1, 2023, independent directors receive a $210,000 annual retainer, plus they receive (a) a fee of $7,250 per day for attendance at regularly scheduled meetings of the Board; (b) a fee of $4,000 per meeting for attendance at special, non-regularly scheduled Board meetings; (c) a fee of $2,500 per meeting for attendance at Audit Committee meetings, Open-End Fund Committee meetings and Investment Committee Meetings; (d) a fee of $5,000 per meeting for attendance at Compliance, Risk Management and Regulatory Oversight Committee meetings; (e) a fee of $1,250 per meeting for attendance at Dividend Committee meetings; and (f) a fee of $500 per meeting for attendance at all other committee meetings, and $100 per meeting when the Executive Committee acts as pricing committee for IPOs, plus, in each case, expenses incurred in attending such meetings, provided that no fees are received for meetings held on days on which regularly scheduled Board meetings are held. In addition to the payments described above, the Chair of the Board receives $140,000, and the chairpersons of the Audit Committee, the Dividend Committee, the Compliance, Risk Management and Regulatory Oversight Committee, the Nominating and Governance Committee, the Open-End Funds Committee and the Investment Committee receive $20,000 each as additional retainers. Independent directors also receive a fee of $5,000 per day for site visits to entities that provide services to the Nuveen Funds on days on which no Board meeting is held. Per meeting fees for unscheduled Committee meetings or meetings of Ad Hoc or Special Assignment Committees will be determined by the Chair of such Committee based on the complexity or time commitment associated with the particular meeting. The annual retainer, fees and expenses are allocated among the Nuveen Funds on the basis of relative net assets, although management may, in its discretion, establish a minimum amount to be allocated to each fund. In certain instances fees and expenses will be allocated only to those Nuveen Funds that are discussed at a given meeting.
NIF does not have a retirement or pension plan. NIF is a participant in a deferred compensation plan (the “Deferred Compensation Plan”) that permits any independent director to elect to defer receipt of all or a portion of his or her compensation as an independent director. The deferred compensation of a participating director is credited to a book reserve account of the participating Nuveen Funds when the compensation would otherwise have been paid to the director. The value of the director’s deferral account at any time is equal to the value that the account would have had if contributions to the account had been invested and reinvested in shares of one or more of the eligible Nuveen Funds. An independent director may elect to receive distributions in a lump sum or over a period of five years. No participating Nuveen Fund will be liable for any other fund’s obligations to make distributions under the Deferred Compensation Plan.
The Funds have no employees. Each officer of NIF serves without any compensation from the Funds. The CCO’s compensation, which is composed of base salary and incentive compensation, is paid by the Adviser, with review and input by the Board. Each Fund reimburses the Adviser for an allocable portion of the Adviser’s cost of the CCO’s incentive compensation.
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Share Ownership
The information in the table below discloses the dollar ranges of (i) each director’s beneficial ownership in each Fund, and (ii) each director’s aggregate beneficial ownership in all funds within the Nuveen Funds complex, including in each case the value of fund shares elected by the director in the directors’ deferred compensation plan, based on the value of fund shares as of December 31, 2022:
Directors |
|||||||||||||||||||
Evans |
Hunter |
Lancellotta |
Medero |
Moschner |
Nelson |
Thornton |
Toth |
Wolff |
Young | ||||||||||
Aggregate
Holdings – |
Over |
Over |
$50,001-$100,000 |
Over $100,000 |
Over |
Over |
Over |
Over |
Over |
Over | |||||||||
Nuveen Credit Income Fund |
$0 |
$0 |
$0 |
$0 |
$0 |
$0 |
$0 |
$0 |
$0 |
$0 | |||||||||
Nuveen Strategic Income Fund |
$0 |
Over |
$1-$10,000 |
$0 |
$0 |
$0 |
$0 |
Over |
$0 |
$0 |
As of December 4, 2023, the officers and directors of NIF, in the aggregate, owned less than 1% of the shares of each of the Funds.
As of December 4, 2023, none of the independent directors or their immediate family members owned, beneficially, or of record, any securities in (i) an investment adviser or principal underwriter of the Funds or (ii) a person (other than a registered investment company) directly or indirectly controlling, controlled by, or under common control with an investment adviser or principal underwriter of the Funds.
Sales Loads
Directors of NIF and certain other Fund affiliates may purchase the Funds' Class R6 or Class I shares. See the Funds' Prospectus for details.
SERVICE PROVIDERS
Investment Adviser
Nuveen Fund Advisors, located at 333 West Wacker Drive, Chicago, Illinois 60606, serves as the investment adviser of each Fund, with responsibility for the overall management of each Fund. The Adviser is also responsible for managing the Funds’ business affairs and providing day-to-day administrative services to the Funds. The Adviser has selected its affiliate, Nuveen Asset Management, located at 333 West Wacker Drive, Chicago, Illinois 60606, to serve as sub-adviser to manage the investment portfolios of the Funds. For additional information regarding the management services performed by the Adviser and the Sub-Adviser, see “Who Manages the Funds” in the Prospectus.
The Adviser is an affiliate of the Distributor, which is located at 333 West Wacker Drive, Chicago, Illinois 60606. The Distributor is the principal underwriter for the Nuveen Mutual Funds, and has served as co-managing underwriter for the shares of the Nuveen Closed-End Funds. The Adviser and the Distributor are subsidiaries of Nuveen, LLC, the investment management arm of TIAA.
For the management services and facilities furnished by the Adviser, each of the Funds has agreed to pay an annual management fee at a rate set forth in the Prospectus under “Who Manages the Funds.”
Each Fund’s management fee is divided into two components—a complex-level fee based on the aggregate amount of all eligible Nuveen Fund assets and a specific fund-level fee based only on the amount of assets within such Fund. This pricing structure enables Fund shareholders to benefit from growth in the assets within the respective Fund as well as from growth in the amount of complex-wide assets managed by the Adviser. Under no circumstances will this pricing structure result in a Fund paying management fees at a rate higher than would otherwise have been applicable had the complex-wide management fee structure not been implemented.
Each Fund has agreed to pay an annual fund-level management fee, payable monthly, based upon the average daily net assets of such Fund as set forth in the Prospectus.
Each Fund’s complex-level fee is payable monthly and is additive to the fund-level fee. It is determined by taking the current overall complex-level fee rate, which is based on the aggregate amount of the “eligible assets” of all Nuveen-branded closed-end funds and Nuveen Mutual Funds, and making, as appropriate, upward adjustments to that rate based upon the percentage of each Fund’s assets that are not “eligible assets.” The current overall complex-level fee schedule is as follows:
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Complex-Level Asset |
Effective Rate at |
||
Breakpoint Level* |
Breakpoint Level |
||
$55 billion |
0.2000% | ||
$56 billion |
0.1996% | ||
$57 billion |
0.1989% | ||
$60 billion |
0.1961% | ||
$63 billion |
0.1931% | ||
$66 billion |
0.1900% | ||
$71 billion |
0.1851% | ||
$76 billion |
0.1806% | ||
$80 billion |
0.1773% | ||
$91 billion |
0.1691% | ||
$125 billion |
0.1599% | ||
$200 billion |
0.1505% | ||
$250 billion |
0.1469% | ||
$300 billion |
0.1445% |
* The complex-level fee is calculated based upon the aggregate daily “eligible assets” of all Nuveen-branded closed-end funds and Nuveen Mutual Funds. Except as described below, eligible assets include the net assets of all Nuveen-branded closed-end funds and Nuveen Mutual Funds organized in the United States. Eligible assets do not include assets attributable to investments in other Nuveen Funds or assets in excess of a determined amount (originally $2 billion) added to the Nuveen Fund complex in connection with Nuveen Fund Advisors’ assumption of the management of the former First American Funds effective January 1, 2011, but do include certain assets of certain Nuveen Mutual Funds that were reorganized into funds advised by an affiliate of Nuveen Fund Advisors during the 2019 calendar year. Eligible assets include closed-end fund assets managed by the Adviser that are attributable to financial leverage. For these purposes, financial leverage includes the closed-end funds’ use of preferred stock and borrowings and certain investments in the residual interest certificates (also called inverse floating rate securities) in tender option bond (TOB) trusts, including the portion of assets held by a TOB trust that has been effectively financed by the trust’s issuance of floating rate securities, subject to an agreement by the Adviser as to certain funds to limit the amount of such assets for determining eligible assets in certain circumstances.
A Fund’s complex-level fee rate will not exceed the maximum overall complex-level fee rate of 0.2000%. As of September 30, 2023, the Funds’ effective complex-level fee rates were as follows:
Complex-Level | ||
Fund |
Fee Rate | |
Nuveen Credit Income Fund |
0.2000% | |
Nuveen Strategic Income Fund |
0.1949% |
The following tables set forth the management fees (net of fee waivers and expense reimbursements) paid by the Funds and the fees waived and expenses reimbursed by the Adviser for the specified periods.
Management
Fees Paid to the |
||||||||||||||||||||||
7/01/20- |
7/01/21- |
7/01/22- |
9/01/22- |
|||||||||||||||||||
Nuveen Credit Income Fund |
$ |
912,155 |
$ |
594,310 |
$ |
23,844 |
$ |
316,710 |
||||||||||||||
Nuveen Strategic Income Fund |
2,745,146 |
3,389,615 |
413,222 |
2,718,164 |
||||||||||||||||||
Fee
Waivers and Expense |
||||||||||||||||||||||
7/01/20- |
7/01/21- |
7/01/22- |
9/01/22- |
|||||||||||||||||||
Nuveen Credit Income Fund |
$ |
232,152 |
$ |
200,059 |
$ |
81,374 |
$ |
185,757 |
||||||||||||||
Nuveen Strategic Income Fund |
731,386 |
828,260 |
223,120 |
830,497 |
In addition to the Adviser’s management fee, each Fund also pays a portion of NIF’s general administrative expenses allocated in proportion to the net assets of each Fund. All fees and expenses are accrued daily and deducted before payment of dividends to investors.
S-59
Sub-Adviser
The Adviser has selected its affiliate, Nuveen Asset Management, to serve as sub-adviser to manage the investment portfolio of each Fund. The Adviser pays Nuveen Asset Management a portfolio management fee out of the advisory fee paid to the Adviser for its services to the Funds.
Portfolio Managers
The following individuals have primary responsibility for the day-to-day implementation of the investment strategies of the Funds:
Name |
Fund |
Jean C. Lin, CFA |
Nuveen Credit Income Fund |
Karina Bubeck, CFA |
Nuveen Credit Income Fund |
Aashh K. Parekh, CFA |
Nuveen Credit Income Fund |
Brenda A. Langenfeld, CFA |
Nuveen Credit Income Fund |
Mark Zheng, CFA |
Nuveen Credit Income Fund |
Douglas M. Baker, CFA |
Nuveen Strategic Income Fund |
Kevin R. Lorenz, CFA |
Nuveen Strategic Income Fund |
Katherine Renfrew |
Nuveen Strategic Income Fund |
Nicholas W. Travaglino |
Nuveen Strategic Income Fund |
Compensation
Portfolio managers are compensated through a combination of base salary and variable components consisting of (i) a cash bonus; (ii) a long-term performance award; and (iii) participation in a profits interest plan.
Base salary. A portfolio manager’s base salary is determined based upon an analysis of the portfolio manager’s general performance, experience and market levels of base pay for such position.
Cash bonus. A portfolio manager is eligible to receive an annual cash bonus that is based on three variables: risk-adjusted investment performance relative to benchmark generally measured over the most recent one, three and five year periods (unless the portfolio manager’s tenure is shorter), ranking versus Morningstar peer funds generally measured over the most recent one, three and five year periods (unless the portfolio manager’s tenure is shorter), and management and peer reviews.
Long-term performance award. A portfolio manager is eligible to receive a long-term performance award that vests after three years. The amount of the award when granted is based on the same factors used in determining the cash bonus. The value of the award at the completion of the three-year vesting period is adjusted based on the risk-adjusted investment performance of Fund(s) managed by the portfolio manager during the vesting period and the performance of the TIAA organization as a whole.
Profits interest plan. Portfolio managers are eligible to receive profits interests in Nuveen Asset Management and its affiliate, TAL, which vest over time and entitle their holders to a percentage of the firms’ annual profits. Profits interests are allocated to each portfolio manager based on such person’s overall contribution to the firms.
There are generally no differences between the methods used to determine compensation with respect to the Funds and the Other Accounts shown in the table below.
Other Accounts Managed
In addition to the Funds, as of August 31, 2023, the portfolio managers were also primarily responsible for the day-to-day portfolio management of the following accounts:
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Portfolio Manager |
Type of Account Managed |
Number of Accounts |
Assets (millions) |
Number of Accounts with Performance- Based Fees |
Assets of Accounts with Performance-Based Fees |
NUVEEN CREDIT INCOME FUND | |||||
Jean C. Lin |
Registered Investment Companies |
4 |
$4,216.00 |
0 |
$0 |
Other Pooled Investment Vehicles |
2 |
$63.46 |
0 |
$0 | |
Other Accounts |
2 |
$73.68 |
0 |
$0 | |
Karina Bubeck |
Registered Investment Companies |
1 |
$481.59 |
0 |
$0 |
Other Pooled Investment Vehicles |
1 |
$90.08 |
0 |
$0 | |
Other Accounts |
0 |
$0 |
0 |
$0 | |
Aashh K. Parekh |
Registered Investment Companies |
1 |
$142.78 |
0 |
$0 |
Other Pooled Investment Vehicles |
0 |
$0 |
0 |
$0 | |
Other Accounts |
0 |
$0 |
0 |
$0 | |
Brenda A. Langenfeld |
Registered Investment Companies |
9 |
$9,218.44 |
0 |
$0 |
Other Pooled Investment Vehicles |
1 |
$6.56 |
0 |
$0 | |
Other Accounts |
1,459 |
$1,985.87 |
0 |
$0 | |
Mark Zheng |
Registered Investment Companies |
0 |
$0 |
0 |
$0 |
Other Pooled Investment Vehicles |
1 |
$263.31 |
0 |
$0 | |
Other Accounts |
0 |
$0 |
0 |
$0 | |
NUVEEN STRATEGIC INCOME FUND | |||||
Douglas M. Baker |
Registered Investment Companies |
5 |
$7,124.53 |
0 |
$0 |
Other Pooled Investment Vehicles |
0 |
$0 |
0 |
$0 | |
Other Accounts |
1,458 |
$1,926.42 |
0 |
$0 | |
Kevin R. Lorenz |
Registered Investment Companies |
8 |
$11,898.97 |
0 |
$0 |
Other Pooled Investment Vehicles |
1 |
$80.60 |
0 |
$0 | |
Other Accounts |
1 |
$14.23 |
0 |
$0 | |
Katherine Renfrew |
Registered Investment Companies |
4 |
$5,454.20 |
0 |
$0 |
Other Pooled Investment Vehicles |
3 |
$291.89 |
0 |
$0 | |
Other Accounts |
2 |
$852.44 |
0 |
$0 | |
Nicholas W. Travaglino |
Registered Investment Companies |
5 |
$14,496.36 |
0 |
$0 |
Other Pooled Investment Vehicles |
2 |
$149.97 |
0 |
$0 | |
Other Accounts |
5 |
$448.21 |
0 |
$0 | |
Conflicts of Interest
Actual or apparent conflicts of interest may arise when a portfolio manager has day-to-day management responsibilities with respect to more than one account. More specifically, portfolio managers who manage multiple accounts are presented a number of potential conflicts, including, among others, those discussed below.
The management of multiple accounts may result in a portfolio manager devoting unequal time and attention to the management of each account. Nuveen Asset Management seeks to manage such competing interests for the time and attention of portfolio managers by having portfolio managers focus on a particular investment discipline. Most accounts managed by a portfolio manager in a particular investment strategy are managed using the same investment models.
If a portfolio manager identifies a limited investment opportunity which may be suitable for more than one account, an account may not be able to take full advantage of that opportunity due to an allocation of filled purchase or sale orders across all eligible accounts. To deal with these situations, Nuveen Asset Management has adopted procedures for allocating limited opportunities across multiple accounts.
With respect to many of its clients’ accounts, Nuveen Asset Management determines which broker to use to execute transaction orders, consistent with its duty to seek best execution of the transaction. However, with respect to certain other accounts, Nuveen Asset Management may be limited by the client with respect to the selection of brokers or may be instructed to direct trades through a particular broker. In these cases, Nuveen Asset Management may place separate, non-simultaneous, transactions for a Fund and other accounts which may temporarily affect the market price of the security or the execution of the transaction, or both, to the detriment of the Fund or the other accounts.
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Some clients are subject to different regulations. As a consequence of this difference in regulatory requirements, some clients may not be permitted to engage in all the investment techniques or transactions or to engage in these transactions to the same extent as the other accounts managed by a portfolio manager. Finally, the appearance of a conflict of interest may arise where Nuveen Asset Management has an incentive, such as a performance-based management fee, which relates to the management of some accounts, with respect to which a portfolio manager has day-to-day management responsibilities.
Conflicts of interest may also arise when the Sub-Adviser invests one or more of its client accounts in different or multiple parts of the same issuer’s capital structure, including investments in public versus private securities, debt versus equity, or senior versus junior/subordinated debt, or otherwise where there are different or inconsistent rights or benefits. Decisions or actions such as investing, trading, proxy voting, exercising, waiving or amending rights or covenants, workout activity, or serving on a board, committee or other involvement in governance may result in conflicts of interest between clients holding different securities or investments. Generally, individual portfolio managers will seek to act in a manner that they believe serves the best interest of the accounts they manage. In cases where a portfolio manager or team faces a conflict among its client accounts, it will seek to act in a manner that it believes best reflects its overall fiduciary duty, which may result in relative advantages or disadvantages for particular accounts.
Nuveen Asset Management has adopted certain compliance procedures which are designed to address these types of conflicts common among investment managers. However, there is no guarantee that such procedures will detect each and every situation in which a conflict arises.
Nuveen Asset Management or its affiliates, including TIAA, sponsor an array of financial products for retirement and other investment goals, and provide services worldwide to a diverse customer base. Accordingly, from time to time, a Fund may be restricted from purchasing or selling securities, or from engaging in other investment activities because of regulatory, legal or contractual restrictions that arise due to another client account’s investments and/or the internal policies of Nuveen Asset Management, TIAA or its affiliates designed to comply with such restrictions. As a result, there may be periods, for example, when Nuveen Asset Management will not initiate or recommend certain types of transactions in certain securities or instruments with respect to which investment limits have been reached.
The investment activities of Nuveen Asset Management or its affiliates may also limit the investment strategies and rights of the Funds. For example, in certain circumstances where the Funds invest in securities issued by companies that operate in certain regulated industries, in certain emerging or international markets, or are subject to corporate or regulatory ownership definitions, or invest in certain futures and derivative transactions, there may be limits on the aggregate amount invested by Nuveen Asset Management or its affiliates for the Funds and other client accounts that may not be exceeded without the grant of a license or other regulatory or corporate consent. If certain aggregate ownership thresholds are reached or certain transactions undertaken, the ability of Nuveen Asset Management, on behalf of the Funds or other client accounts, to purchase or dispose of investments or exercise rights or undertake business transactions may be restricted by regulation or otherwise impaired. As a result, Nuveen Asset Management, on behalf of the Funds or other client accounts, may limit purchases, sell existing investments, or otherwise restrict or limit the exercise of rights (including voting rights) when Nuveen Asset Management, in its sole discretion, deems it appropriate in light of potential regulatory or other restrictions on ownership or other consequences resulting from reaching investment thresholds.
Beneficial Ownership of Securities
The following table indicates as of August 31, 2023 the value, within the indicated range, of shares beneficially owned by each portfolio manager in the Fund they manage. For purposes of this table, the following letters indicate the range listed next to each letter:
A |
- $0 |
|||
B |
- $1 - $10,000 |
|||
C |
- $10,001 - $50,000 |
|||
D |
- $50,001 - $100,000 |
|||
E |
- $100,001 - $500,000 |
|||
F |
- $500,001 - $1,000,000 |
|||
G |
- More than $1 million |
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Portfolio Manager |
Fund |
Dollar Range of Equity Securities Beneficially Owned in Fund Managed | ||
Jean C. Lin |
Nuveen Credit Income Fund |
D | ||
Karina Bubeck |
Nuveen Credit Income Fund |
C | ||
Aashh K. Parekh |
Nuveen Credit Income Fund |
A | ||
Brenda A. Langenfeld |
Nuveen Credit Income Fund |
C | ||
Mark Zheng |
Nuveen Credit Income Fund |
A | ||
Douglas M. Baker |
Nuveen Strategic Income Fund |
D | ||
Kevin R. Lorenz |
Nuveen Strategic Income Fund |
D | ||
Katherine Renfrew |
Nuveen Strategic Income Fund |
C | ||
Nicholas W. Travaglino |
Nuveen Strategic Income Fund |
E |
Transfer Agent
The Funds' transfer, shareholder services, and dividend paying agent is SS&C Global Investor & Distribution Solutions, Inc. (“SS&C GIDS”), P.O. Box 219140, Kansas City, Missouri 64121-9140.
Custodian
The custodian of the assets of the Funds is State Street Bank and Trust Company (“State Street”), One Congress Street, Suite 1, Boston, Massachusetts 02114-2016. The custodian performs custodial, fund accounting and portfolio accounting services.
Distributor
Nuveen Securities, LLC, 333 West Wacker Drive, Chicago, Illinois 60606, serves as the distributor for the Funds' shares pursuant to a “best efforts” arrangement as provided by a Distribution Agreement dated January 1, 2011 (the “Distribution Agreement”). Pursuant to the Distribution Agreement, the Funds appointed the Distributor to be their agent for the distribution of the Funds' shares on a continuous offering basis.
Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm
KPMG LLP, 200 East Randolph Street, Chicago, Illinois 60601, independent registered public accounting firm, has been selected as auditors for the Funds.
Securities Lending Agent
State Street serves as the securities lending agent to the Funds. Pursuant to a Securities Lending Agreement and in accordance with procedures established by the Board of Directors, State Street effects loans of Fund securities to any firm on a list of approved borrowers, negotiates loan terms, monitors the value of the loaned securities and collateral, requests additional collateral as necessary, manages reinvestment of collateral in a pooled cash collateral reinvestment vehicle, arranges for the return of loaned securities to a Fund, and maintains records and prepares reports regarding loans that are made and the income derived therefrom. For the services provided, a securities lending agent will receive fees and/or compensation from a Fund, which may include a portion of the income generated from securities lending activities.
The following table provides the dollar amounts of income and fees and/or compensation related to the Funds' securities lending activities during the fiscal year ended August 31, 2023:
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Nuveen |
Nuveen | ||||||||
Gross
income from securities |
$ |
202,954 |
$ |
572,234 |
|||||
Fees and/or compensation paid by each Fund for securities lending activities and related services: |
|||||||||
Fees paid to Securities Lending Agent from a revenue split |
(4,115 |
) |
(9,052 |
) | |||||
Fees paid for any cash collateral management service (including fees deducted from a pooled cash collateral reinvestment vehicle) that are not included in the revenue split |
(1,542 |
) |
(4,478 |
) | |||||
Administrative fees not included in the revenue split |
— |
— |
|||||||
Indemnification fees not included in the revenue split |
— |
— |
|||||||
Rebate (paid to borrower) |
(149,953 |
) |
(454,991 |
) | |||||
Other fees not included in the revenue split |
— |
— |
|||||||
Aggregate fees/compensation for securities lending activities |
(155,610 |
) |
(468,521 |
) | |||||
Net income from securities lending activities |
$ |
47,344 |
$ |
103,713 |
CODES OF ETHICS
The Funds, the Adviser, Nuveen Asset Management and the Distributor have adopted codes of ethics pursuant to Rule 17j-1 under the 1940 Act and with respect to the Adviser and the Sub-Adviser, Rule 204A-1 under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940, as amended, addressing personal securities transactions and other conduct by investment personnel and access persons who may have access to information about the Funds' securities transactions. The codes are intended to address potential conflicts of interest that can arise in connection with personal trading activities of such persons. Persons subject to the codes are generally permitted to engage in personal securities transactions, including investing in securities eligible for investment by the Funds, subject to certain prohibitions, which may include prohibitions on investing in certain types of securities, pre-clearance requirements, blackout periods, annual and quarterly reporting of personal securities holdings and limitations on personal trading of initial public offerings. Violations of the codes are subject to review by the Board of Directors and could result in severe penalties.
PROXY VOTING POLICIES
The Funds invest their assets primarily in debt securities, which generally do not issue proxies. However, the Funds may also invest in other types of securities that may issue proxies.
Each Fund has delegated authority to the Adviser to vote proxies for securities held by the Fund, and the Adviser has in turn delegated that responsibility to Nuveen Asset Management. The Adviser’s proxy voting policy establishes minimum standards for the exercise of proxy voting authority by Nuveen Asset Management.
The Sub-Adviser will vote proxies in accordance with the Nuveen Proxy Voting Guidelines, which are attached, along with the Nuveen Proxy Voting Policy and Nuveen Proxy Voting Conflicts of Interest Policy and Procedures, as an Appendix to this SAI.
The Sub-Adviser relies on a dedicated team of professionals responsible for reviewing and voting proxies. In analyzing a proposal, in addition to exercising their professional judgment, these professionals utilize various sources of information to enhance their ability to evaluate the proposal. These sources may include research from third party proxy advisory firms and other consultants, various corporate governance-focused organizations, related publications and Nuveen investment professionals. Based on their analysis of proposals and guided by the Nuveen Proxy Voting Guidelines, these professionals then vote in a manner intended solely to advance the best interests of Fund shareholders.
The Sub-Adviser believes that it has implemented policies, procedures and processes designed to prevent conflicts of interest from influencing proxy voting decisions. These include (i) oversight by the Nuveen Fund Board or a designated committee thereof; (ii) a clear separation of proxy voting functions from external client relationship and sales functions; and (iii) the active monitoring of required annual disclosures of potential conflicts of interest by individuals who have direct roles in executing or influencing a Fund’s proxy voting by Nuveen’s legal and compliance professionals.
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There could be rare instances in which an individual who has a direct role in executing or influencing a Fund’s proxy voting (e.g., Nuveen’s proxy voting professionals, a Board member, or a senior executive of the Funds, the Adviser, Sub-Adviser or their affiliates) is either a director or executive of a portfolio company or may have some other association with a portfolio company. In such cases, this individual is required to recuse himself or herself from all decisions related to proxy voting for that portfolio company.
Voted Proxies. Information regarding how each Fund voted proxies relating to portfolio securities during the most recent 12-month period ended June 30 is available without charge by accessing Nuveen’s website at http://www.nuveen.com or the SEC’s website at http://www.sec.gov.
PORTFOLIO TRANSACTIONS
Nuveen Asset Management is responsible for decisions to buy and sell securities for the Funds, the negotiation of the prices to be paid or received for principal trades, and the allocation of its transactions among various dealer firms. Portfolio securities will normally be purchased directly from an underwriter in a new issue offering or in the over-the-counter secondary market from the principal dealers in such securities, unless it appears that a better price or execution may be obtained elsewhere.
On behalf of a Fund, Nuveen Asset Management may seek to buy from or sell securities to another fund or account advised by Nuveen Asset Management or an affiliate. Nuveen Asset Management may effect purchases and sales between its clients or clients of its affiliates, including the Funds (referred to herein as “cross trades”), if it believes that such transactions are appropriate based on each party’s investment objectives and guidelines, subject to applicable law and regulation. Cross trades may give rise to potential conflicts of interest for Nuveen Asset Management. On any occasion when a Fund participates in a cross trade, the Fund will comply with procedures adopted pursuant to Rule 17a-7 under the 1940 Act and applicable SEC guidance.
The Funds expect that substantially all portfolio transactions will be effected on a principal (as opposed to an agency) basis and, accordingly, do not expect to pay significant amounts of brokerage commissions. Brokerage will not be allocated based on the sale of a Fund’s shares. Purchases from underwriters will include a commission or concession paid by the issuer to the underwriter, and purchases from dealers will include the spread between the bid and asked price. It is the policy of Nuveen Asset Management to seek the best execution under the circumstances of each trade. Nuveen Asset Management evaluates price as the primary consideration, with the financial condition, reputation and responsiveness of the dealer considered secondarily in determining best execution. Given the best execution obtainable, it may be Nuveen Asset Management’s practice to select dealers that, in addition, furnish research information (primarily credit analyses of issuers and general economic reports) and statistical and other services to Nuveen Asset Management. It is not possible to place a dollar value on information and statistical and other services received from dealers. Since it is only supplementary to Nuveen Asset Management’s own research efforts, the receipt of research information is not expected to reduce significantly Nuveen Asset Management’s expenses. For certain secondary market transactions where the execution capability of two brokers is judged to be of substantially similar quality, Nuveen Asset Management may randomly select one of them. While Nuveen Asset Management will be primarily responsible for the placement of the portfolio transactions of the Funds, the policies and practices of Nuveen Asset Management in this regard must be consistent with the foregoing and will, at all times, be subject to review by the Board of Directors.
Nuveen Asset Management may manage other investment companies and investment accounts for other clients that have investment objectives similar to the Funds. Subject to applicable laws and regulations, Nuveen Asset Management seeks to allocate portfolio transactions equitably whenever concurrent decisions are made to purchase or sell securities by a Fund and another advisory account. In making such allocations the main factors to be considered will be the respective investment objectives, the relative size of the portfolio holdings of the same or comparable securities, the availability of cash for investment or need to raise cash, and the size of investment commitments generally held. While this procedure could have a detrimental effect on the price or amount of the securities (or, in the case of dispositions, the demand for securities) available to the Funds from time to time, it is the opinion of the Board of Directors that the benefits available from the Nuveen Asset Management organization will outweigh any disadvantage that may arise from exposure to simultaneous transactions.
The following table sets forth the aggregate brokerage commissions paid by the Funds for the specified periods:
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Aggregate Brokerage Commissions Paid by the Funds | |||||||||||||||||
Fund |
7/01/20- |
7/01/21- |
7/01/22- |
9/01/22- | |||||||||||||
Nuveen Credit Income Fund |
$ |
6,372 |
$ |
1,294 |
$ |
449 |
$ |
841 |
|||||||||
Nuveen Strategic Income Fund |
10,563 |
— |
— |
1,488 |
Brokerage commissions paid by a Fund may vary substantially from year to year as a result of changing asset levels throughout the year, portfolio turnover rates, differences in shareholder purchase and redemption activity, varying market conditions, a fiscal period that’s less than a year and other factors.
During the fiscal year ended August 31, 2023, the Funds did not pay commissions to brokers in return for research services.
During the fiscal year ended August 31, 2023, the Funds acquired the securities of their regular brokers or dealers as defined in Rule 10b-1 under the 1940 Act or of the parents of the brokers or dealers. The following table sets forth those brokers or dealers and states the value of the Funds’ aggregate holdings of the securities of each issuer as of close of the fiscal year ended August 31, 2023:
Fund |
Broker/Dealer |
Issuer |
Aggregate
Fund Holdings of Broker/Dealer | ||||||
Nuveen Credit Income Fund |
Barclays Capital |
Barclays PLC |
$ |
268,158 |
|||||
Deutsche Bank Trust Co. |
Deutsche Bank AG |
279,125 |
|||||||
JP Morgan Securities, Inc. |
JPMBB Commercial Mortgage Securities Trust |
675,191 |
|||||||
Wells Fargo Securities, LLC |
Wells Fargo & Co |
174,038 |
|||||||
Nuveen Strategic Income Fund |
Bank of America |
BAMLL Commercial Mortgage Securities Trust |
1,931,257 |
||||||
Bank of America Corp |
7,353,621 |
||||||||
Barclays Capital |
Barclays PLC |
2,091,632 |
|||||||
Citigroup Global Markets Inc. |
Citigroup Commercial Mortgage Trust |
5,768,843 |
|||||||
Citigroup Inc |
3,459,942 |
||||||||
Deutsche Bank Trust Co. |
Deutsche Bank AG |
2,624,064 |
|||||||
Goldman Sachs & Co. |
Goldman Sachs Group Inc |
5,674,743 |
|||||||
GS Mortgage-Backed Securities Corp Trust |
245,716 |
||||||||
GS Mortgage-Backed Securities Trust |
3,516,661 |
||||||||
GS Mortgage Securities Corp II |
— |
||||||||
GS Mortgage Securities Corp Trust |
5,983,069 |
||||||||
GS Mortgage Securities Trust |
3,830,726 |
||||||||
HSBC Securities Inc. |
HSBC Holdings PLC |
944,081 |
|||||||
JP Morgan Securities, Inc. |
Bear Stearns Commercial Mortgage Securities Trust |
— |
|||||||
JPMBB Commercial Mortgage Securities Trust |
6,665,179 |
||||||||
JPMCC Commercial Mortgage Securities Trust |
— |
||||||||
JP Morgan Alternative Loan Trust |
169,567 |
||||||||
JP Morgan Chase Commercial Mortgage Securities Trust |
2,141,180 |
||||||||
JPMorgan Chase & Co |
6,255,978 |
||||||||
JP Morgan Mortgage Trust |
2,565,461 |
||||||||
Washington Mutual MSC Mortgage Pass-Through Certificates Series |
40,725 |
||||||||
Morgan Stanley & Co. |
Morgan Stanley |
747,215 |
|||||||
Morgan Stanley Bank NA |
2,235,190 |
||||||||
Morgan Stanley Capital I Trust |
703,826 |
||||||||
Morgan Stanley Residential Mortgage Loan Trust |
202,555 |
||||||||
Wells Fargo Securities, LLC |
Wells Fargo & Co |
5,264,287 |
|||||||
Wells Fargo Bank NA |
752,377 |
||||||||
Wells Fargo Mortgage Backed Securities Trust |
758,313 |
||||||||
WFRBS Commercial Mortgage Trust |
— |
Under the 1940 Act, a Fund may not purchase portfolio securities from any underwriting syndicate of which the Distributor is a member except under certain limited conditions set forth in Rule 10f-3. The Rule
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sets forth requirements relating to, among other things, the terms of a security purchased by a Fund, the amount of securities that may be purchased in any one issue and the assets of a Fund that may be invested in a particular issue. In addition, purchases of securities made pursuant to the terms of the Rule must be approved at least quarterly by the Board of Directors, including a majority of the independent directors.
Portfolio Trading and Turnover
The Funds will make changes in their investment portfolios from time to time in order to seek to take advantage of opportunities in the market and to limit exposure to market risk. The Funds may also engage to a limited extent in short-term trading consistent with their investment objectives. Changes in the Funds’ investments are known as “portfolio turnover.”
The substantial increase in the Funds’ portfolio turnover rates over the fiscal year ended August 31, 2023 was the result of a change to the fiscal year end.
DISCLOSURE OF PORTFOLIO HOLDINGS
The Nuveen Mutual Funds have adopted a portfolio holdings disclosure policy that governs the dissemination of the Funds’ portfolio holdings. In accordance with this policy, the Funds may provide portfolio holdings information to third parties no earlier than the time a report is filed with the SEC that is required to contain such information or one day after the information is posted on the Funds’ publicly accessible website, www.nuveen.com. A complete list of portfolio holdings information is generally made available on the Funds' website ten business days after the end of the month. Additionally, the Funds publish on the website a list of their top ten holdings as of the end of each month, approximately two to five business days after the end of the month for which the information is current. This information will remain available on the website at least until the Funds file with the SEC their Form N-CSR or Form N-PORT for the period that includes the date as of which the website information is current.
Additionally, the Funds may disclose portfolio holdings information that has not been included in a filing with the SEC or posted on the Funds’ website (i.e., non-public portfolio holdings information) only if there is a legitimate business purpose for doing so and if the recipient is required, either by explicit agreement or by virtue of the recipient’s duties to the Funds as an agent or service provider, to maintain the confidentiality of the information and to not use the information in an improper manner (e.g., personal trading). In this context, portfolio holdings information does not include summary information from which the identity of a Fund’s specific portfolio holdings cannot reasonably be derived. The Funds may disclose on an ongoing basis non-public portfolio holdings information in the normal course of their investment and administrative operations to various service providers, including the Adviser and/or Sub-Adviser, independent registered public accounting firm, custodian, financial printer, proxy voting service(s), borrowers of their securities pursuant to securities lending transactions, and to the legal counsel for the Funds’ independent directors. Also, the Adviser may transmit to service providers non-public portfolio holdings information to enable the Adviser to perform portfolio attribution analysis using third-party systems and software programs. The Adviser and/or Sub-Adviser may also provide certain portfolio holdings information to broker-dealers from time to time in connection with the purchase or sale of securities or requests for price quotations or bids on one or more securities. In providing this information, reasonable precautions are taken in an effort to avoid potential misuse of the disclosed information, including limitations on the scope of the portfolio holdings information disclosed, when appropriate. The Funds, the Adviser, and the Sub-Adviser do not receive compensation or other consideration in exchange for the disclosure of portfolio holdings.
Non-public portfolio holdings information may be provided to other persons if approved by the Funds’ Chief Administrative Officer or Secretary upon a determination that there is a legitimate business purpose for doing so, the disclosure is consistent with the interests of the Funds, and the recipient is obligated to maintain the confidentiality of the information and not misuse it, which includes a prohibition on trading on such non-public information.
Compliance officers of the Funds and the Adviser and Sub-Adviser periodically monitor overall compliance with the policy to ascertain whether portfolio holdings information is disclosed in a manner that is consistent with the Funds’ policy. Reports are made to the Funds’ Board of Directors on an annual basis.
There is no assurance that the Funds’ policies on portfolio holdings information will protect the Funds from the potential misuse of portfolio holdings information by individuals or firms in possession of such information.
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The following parties currently receive non-public portfolio holdings information regarding one or more of the Nuveen Mutual Funds on an ongoing basis pursuant to the various arrangements described above:
Advent
Adviser
Compliance Associates, LLC
Bank
of America PriceServe
Barclays
Capital, Inc.
Barra
Bloomberg
Broadridge
Investor Communication Solutions, Inc.
Broadridge
Systems
Brown
Brothers Harriman & Co.
Chapman
and Cutler LLP
Compliance
Solutions Strategies
Confluence
NXT
Donnelley
Financial Solutions
Eagle
Investment Systems, LLC
Electra
Information Systems
Ernst
& Young
FactSet
Research Systems
Financial
Graphic Services
Glass,
Lewis & Co.
Houlihan
Lokey Financial Advisors, Inc.
ICE
Benchmark Administration Limited
ICE
Data Services
IHS
Markit, Ltd.
ISS
Investortools
KPMG
LLP
Lipper
Inc.
Moody’s
Morningstar,
Inc.
Northern
Trust Corp.