| All change! What a difference a week makes in the UK’s political circles. Just last week, those of us who listen to the morning media were awoken to a stream of political resignations, ending finally in that awkward press conference on the steps of number 10, with Boris Johnson finally agreeing to step down, but not until the Autumn.
Sterling strengthened and the FTSE lifted but economic news this week revealed more worrying signs of things to come, with inflation in the US hitting 9.1 per cent, while Canada’s central bank raised interest rates by 100 bp and the Euro and the US dollar hit parity.
The reliability of the ETF inflow has been tested with the great and the good among the data gatherers reporting inflows are down across the board for the first time in a long time. Morningstar reported a 63.17 per cent decrease in European ETF inflows, while Amundi saw a 35 per cent drop on a global
scale. In terms of indices, the tech heavy NASDAQ reported performance in June across Nasdaq’s suite of indexes was generally negative with an average loss of 8.7 per cent across the 99 indexes.
However, this is the ETF industry, a robust and inventive industry that continues to come up with new ideas and new products. Launches may be slow this time of year, but we have a new white labeller in Europe, with Leverage Shares debuting its white label offering, with Raj Sheth, Commercial Director at Leverage Shares saying: "Our experience, costs and bandwidth offer a one-stop platform for fund managers looking to launch their ETP strategy without having to deal with high costs, complexities, and the logistical burden of setting up distribution. With starting prices 70-90 per cent lower than existing market rates, even smaller fund managers can access and afford having their own ETP."
Our feature this week brings you some background to SEI’s latest
venture, this time an outing with Dimensional Fund Advisors. SEI is back with a new partner, having announced the launch in the US of the SEI Strategies featuring Dimensional, a suite of model portfolios developed using ETFs managed by Dimensional Fund Advisors.
J Womack, Managing Director of Investment Products and Personalization for SEI’s Advisor business, explains that process of working with Dimensional in this instance started with an alignment of SEI’s organisational values and mission vision. SEI’s tag line is ‘building brave futures’ while Dimensional’s is ‘transforming lives’.
"We have a long history in the industry and we are very focused on end clients, helping them to build strong financial foundations to power their financial goals over time," Womack says.
Other good news for the industry this week came from Oxford Risk’s study that predicted that MENA investors will increasingly turn to ETFs and mutual
funds for investment, and GraniteShares’ latest study – reported on ETF Express sister title Wealth Adviser - that found that investors are not impressed by current savings rates offerings designed to encourage them to move to cash.
It's proving to be an oddly hectic and quiet summer, all at the same time. And certainly a hot one. Let’s all try and keep our cool.
Beverly Chandler, managing editor, ETF Express
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Companies in this issue
Dimensional Fund Advisors
DWS
GraniteShares
Leverage Shares
SEI
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