ETFs: out with the old, in with the new?

Although it’s not the start of a new year, September still seems to herald the beginning of a new season, a busy period after the traditional quiet lull of summer. Except the last few months have been anything but quiet in the land of ETFs. Existing providers are gearing up to launch new suites of funds as part of the “product evolution,” while other well-established issuers are expanding their geographical reach.

The Royal Bank of Scotland entered the UK ETF arena recently, listing a new range of Market Access funds on the London Stock Exchange. Commerzbank, an established issuer in Germany, has announced it is launching its inaugural UK offering of synthetically-replicated ETFs this month, leveraging on its strong derivatives trading platform. 

Key industry figures are also on the move. Nizam Hamid at iShares is soon joining Lyxor, a firm that said goodbye to Dan Draper who departed for Credit Suisse earlier in the year. Rory Tobin left his role as head of iShares International over the summer, while BlackRock underwent a wider organisational reshuffle. Hector McNeil at ETF Securities is also leaving, at the beginning of this month, after joining the firm in 2006 as head of sales and marketing. 

With these departures, a new wave of industry figures beckons, or at least we expect to see familiar faces crop up at different firms. And as more firms enter the ETF market, perhaps it’s more a case of in with the old and with the new?

Emma Dunkley, Editor