The cab driver test

As I mentioned last week, I have just attended the IMPower Fund Forum event in Monte Carlo and while there managed to meet up with Caroline Baron, head of ETF business development at Franklin Templeton, who gave me her insight that ETFs are becoming considerably more popular with the investor on the street.

Her test for the rise of knowledge about ETFs in the retail market is the cab driver test. “I now find that four out of five cab drivers, a good representative of the flow side, know what ETFs are,” she says.

This is as good a test as any and came up in my conversation with her as we discussed the rise of the neobroker and savings plan approach to investing in ETFs across Europe as featured in my panel at the event with Wail Azizi of Equiduct, Gerry Perez of Interactive Brokers, Jan Jursa of Finax and Timo Slametschka of Scalable Capital.

“We look at technology and how it will disrupt finance and you can see it in the rise of these neobrokers,” she said. “The new generation wants to do everything on their phones.”

This week we are very pleased to bring you the latest Canadian ETF industry awards report. The awards were hosted by the Toronto Stock Exchange and in a similar vein, we hear Daniel Straus, Managing Director, ETFs & Financial Products Research, National Bank of Canada Financial Markets, predict that the feedback loop between client demand and provider product development will only accelerate.

Meanwhile, Graham Mackenzie, Managing Director, Exchange Traded Products, Toronto Stock Exchange, says: “Post pandemic, we have seen a real noticeable growth in the direct investor channel as more and more “do-it-yourself” Canadians have adopted to using ETFs for their investment needs. We’ve seen many Canadian ETF issuers start to put resources and efforts into matching the growth of DIY investors.”

It might be the summer months but there has been no shortage of new and inventive ETF and ETF adjunct launches in the past week, including a few newcomers to Europe, with REX Shares launching covered call products in Europe and UniCredit launching a five-year certificate linked to the iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF. Read our three launches columns, brought to you by STOXX, here.

Today is the last day for nominating ETF service providers in the Japanese market ahead of voting opening on Monday for both service providers and ETF issuers in Japan. Get your nominations in now by following this link.

Beverly Chandler, Managing Editor

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