Another juggernaut manager hits the ETF playing field with the announcement from Morgan Stanley that they are to launch a suite of six new ETFs – four indexed ESG strategies and two active ESG strategies across a range of asset classes.

 

The timing comes just before the Oscars of the ETF industry – Exchange in Miami, which was no doubt planned and  set plenty of tongues wagging.

 

Fund Launches and Updates

 

EMEA

 

Ark Invest teams up with Swedish broker Avanza to launch the Avanza Disruptive Innovation by Ark Invest. The fund will be run in line with Ark’s flagship Ark Innovation strategy. FT

 

BlackRock has joined forces with the neobroker Bux to offer low-cost savings plans that use ETFs in a push to encourage more retail investors across Europe to adopt ETF. FT

 

Mutual Fund manager M&G and Moneyfarm have partnered to launch an investment platform offering tailor-made portfolios with ETFs to retail investors. etfstrategy

 

CoinShares Reduces Management Fees to 0% on CoinShares Physical Ethereum ETP. yahoo

 

AMERICAS

 

Strive adds EM ex-China ETF to ‘anti-ESG’ suite. The Strive Emerging Markets EX-China ETF (STXE US) has been listed on NYSE Arca with an expense ratio of 0.32%. etfstrategy

 

BNY Mellon ETFs to focus on women and innovation after filing to issue the BNY Mellon Innovators ETF and the BNY Mellon Women’s Empowerment ETF. Etf.com

 

Morgan Stanley Investment Management has announced the launch of an ETF platform with the listing of six Calvert ETFs on NYSE Arca. morganstanley

 

Calvert US Large-Cap Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Index ETF (CDEI)

Calvert Ultra-Short Investment Grade ETF (CVSB)

Calvert US Large-Cap Core Responsible Index ETF (CVLC)

Calvert International Responsible Index ETF (CVIE)

Calvert US-Mid Cap Core Responsible Index ETF (CVMC)

Calvert US Select Equity ETF (CVSE)

 

BMO Asset Management has introduced five new ETFs on Toronto Stock Exchange. The line-up includes three actively managed equity ETFs and two fixed income ETFs. etfstrategy

 

CLICK to listen to stories from inspiring leaders. This week we speak to Bruno Ramos de Sousa – Head of New Markets at Hashdex.

Flows

 

Investors are soaking up emerging markets bonds in early 2023. etftrends

ARK Innovation ETF (ARKK) back in vogue. decrypto

Capital Group raises $7bn AUM in first year in ETFs. etftrends

 

Noteworthy

 

Our friends at Bloomberg provided this very interesting analysis on ETF trading in Europe in 2022:

 

ETP trading represented 10% of Europe’s market trading – compared to 30% in the US.

Off-Exchange ETP trading gaining market share – RFQ platforms Bloomberg and Tradeweb combined for about 50% of total traded value in 2022. Germany’s ETP turnover last year topped the London Stock Exchange’s for the first time.

Retail adoption slow but growing in Europe – Hargreaves Lansdown, one of the UK’s biggest platforms for retail investors said almost 10% of its clients are using ETPs in some way.

Fragmented trading still liquid. – Europe-listed ETPs’ trading volume reached €2.5 trillion in 2022, up almost 20% from the previous year.

iShares has Europe’s deepest ETP liquidity pool – iShares accounts for the largest portion of Europe’s ETP trading, averaging 45% of the total value.

Market structure drives Europe’s fragmented trading.

Liquidity buckets balanced across ETP tenures – ETP liquidity tends to skew toward older products, but the European market is more balanced than the US, with trading relatively fragmented.

 

Additional reads

 

No love lost between Osprey and Grayscale after Osprey sues Grayscale for misrepresenting likelihood of GBTC ETF approval. cointelegraph

An AI-driven ETF is beating the market by nearly 100%. businessinsider

New ‘research’ suggests that niche Thematic ETFs tend to be poor investment choices that underperform the market. FT

 

From Behind the Desk

 

ETF Distribution in Europe is changing. 

How ETF managers distribute their products in Europe has taken a subtle shift if you have been observing the market over the past 18 months.

iShares partnered with neobroker Scalable Capital in Germany and now with BUX in the Netherlands.

Franklin Templeton partners with Directa in Italy.

JP Morgan buys Nutmeg in the UK.

Vanguard continue to buildout their own platform Pan Europe.

There are other managers who shall remain nameless who are looking for similar partnership relationship ALL with the goal of developing a Direct To Retail channel and why wouldn’t they – skate to where the puck is going and the puck is going to more online distribution.

This graph below shows the growth of ETF saving plans in Germany, the poster child of Retail ETF growth in Europe.

An impressive picture to say the least.

Firms who continue to rely on the old ways of distribution are at risk of being squeezed out. Evolve or die