ETF Express Newsletter

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NEWSLETTER | 22 Jan 2021

The full range of products on the ETF stall

The big story this week has been the flood of flow stories, each detailing how extraordinarily buoyant the ETF world was during what was, by any measure, a difficult year. The headline figures come from BlackRock, which noted that, despite a rollercoaster year for sentiment, a record USD756 billion was added to global ETPs in 2020, surpassing the previous record set in 2017 (USD660 billion).

And top of the pops for all the observers and number crunchers was ESG, which in Europe, Bloomberg reports, accounted for almost 40 per cent of Europe's ETP launches in 2020 and about the same share of industry inflows. Meanwhile, Lyxor, also focused on Europe, noted that ESG ETFs attracted the bulk of inflows in 2020, more than half of the total inflow (51 per cent) representing more than twice the amount of assets raised during the whole of 2019.

Lyxor notes that ESG ETFs haven’t suffered outflows in any single month since the start of 2019, and Amundi also noted that, in Europe, ESG and thematic ETFs dominated the year.

More ESG in this week’s newsletter, with John Willis, from not-for-profit organisation Planet Tracker, who brings a bracing call to arms to ETF issuers, saying that with the ETF universe indirectly and often unknowingly enabling deforestation, a handful of institutions controlling the majority of the ETF and index markets holds significant power of change.

Another huge theme currently for ETFs is the crypto theme, and this week has brought news that veteran crypto ETP providers CoinShares has launched on the, favoured-for-all-things-crypto, Switzerland’s SIX Exchange with a bitcoin ETP. We also have an interview with SIX, details of HANetf’s BTCE launch on SIX, and a recap on the volatile but growing world of crypto ETPs.

Back to earth and an investment style that has been out of favour over recent years is value and we have two pieces this week noting that Value appears to be making something of a return. Tom Cole from Distillate notes that this is Value 2.0, which updates outmoded forms of valuation, while Brandon Rakszawski from VanEck comments that Value in the form of the Wide Moat style of investing is enjoying a recovery.

This week also saw publication of the ETF Express Global Outlook for 2021 which, this year, reflects the views of eight global investors in ETFs who represent billions of dollars of ETF assets. Read the report here.

We have also launched the landing page for the first of our etfLIVE Spotlight series which will feature five key themes in ETF investing. Find out more here.

If you would like to receive this newsletter weekly, do register for free here.

Beverly Chandler
Managing Editor, ETF Express

Companies in this issue
21 Shares
Accelerate
AJ Bell
Algo-Chain
Alliance Investment Management
American Century Investments
Amundi
BlackRock
Bloomberg
BTCE
CI Global Asset Management
The CFA
CoinShares
Distillate Capital
Franklin Templeton
HANetf
Harvest Portfolios Group
Lyxor
New Age Alpha
Nutmeg
Orion Advisor Solutions
Planet Tracker
Refinitiv
Sage Advisory
Sandaire Family Office
SIX Exchange
Sparrows Capital
Tabula Investment Management
VanEck
Vanguard

Tradeweb sees EUR36.3bn in European trading activity in December

Thu | 21 Jan 2021, 14:21

Trading activity on the Tradeweb European ETF marketplace reached EUR36.3 billion in December. The proportion of transactions processed via Tradeweb’s Automated Intelligent Execution (AiEX) tool was 72 per cent.

Thu | 21 Jan 2021, 14:21

Assets invested in the global ETFs and ETPs industry have increased by 25.6 per cent from USD6.36 trillion to a new milestone of USD7.99 trillion at the end of December 2020.

Thu | 21 Jan 2021, 14:21

2020 was quite the year for ETFs, as assets continued to roll in, and many firms predict that 2021 will continue on much the same course.

Thu | 21 Jan 2021, 14:21

Another week and another crypto launch for Switzerland’s SIX Exchange with the arrival of CoinShares with its new physically backed ETP, CoinShares Physical Bitcoin (BITC).

Thu | 21 Jan 2021, 14:21

Refinitiv’s Lipper team reports that ETF promoters in Europe experienced estimated net inflows of EUR23.2 billion for December, while assets under management in the European ETF industry (EUR992.6 billion) increased during December.

Value enjoys return to the spotlight in Wide Moat form

Thu | 21 Jan 2021, 14:21

Value investing is under the spotlight already this year, having spent some five to 10 years in the doldrums, outshone by its glamorous growth cousin. Brandon Rakszawski (pictured), Senior ETF Product Manager at VanEck, has noted that November 2020 saw the Morningstar Wide Moat Focus Index come back strongly relative to the S&P 500 Index to erase a good portion of its 2020 relative underperformance.

Thu | 21 Jan 2021, 14:21

Not for profit organisation Planet Tracker has launched a blistering call to arms naming the seven companies that it says are critical to tackling ETF deforestation risk.

Thu | 21 Jan 2021, 14:21

Simon Klein, global head of passive sales at DWS, has published a note on the performance of the Xtrackers range over 2020. He writes that Xtrackers globally reached EUR132 billion in AUM, up 16 per cent compared with 2019. Net new assets were EUR15 billion, with impressive gains of EUR5 billion achieved globally in ESG ETF inflows.

Thu | 21 Jan 2021, 14:21

News came in early January that SIX, the Swiss Stock Exchange, had registered the listing of HANetf’s BTCE ETP by ETC Group, further strengthening its position at the forefront of the provision of crypto ETPs.

Thu | 21 Jan 2021, 14:21

Value investing gets another outing and a different look with Distillate Capital’s Value Investing 2.0 approach.

Global ETF launches 14-21.01.21

Thu | 21 Jan 2021, 14:21

A bumper week for new launches saw Tabula launch a fixed income ETF aligned to the Paris Agreement on climate change, while Harvest Portfolios Group got in on the low-carbon act too with a new clean energy fund. The company also debuted a travel and leisure ETF tracking a Solactive index. Other notable newcomers included a bitcoin ETP from CoinShares, and a new fund from Accelerate offering access to six alternative asset classes and ten alternative investment strategies in one easy-to-use ETF.