Vanguard has announced the cross-listing of four Irish-domiciled exchange-traded funds (ETFs) on the SIX Swiss Exchange. Following the listing, a total of seven Vanguard ETFs are now available on the exchange.

Axel Lomholt, head of international product development and management at Vanguard, commented: “Continuing to list our ETFs on the SIX Exchange underscores our commitment to the Swiss market and the European market more broadly. Making our ETFs more readily available across Europe gives more investors a low-cost way to reach their investment goals.”

Source has added GBP trading lines to four London-listed US sector exchange-traded funds (ETFs). The move simplifies access for sterling-based investors and comes at a time when ETFs are fast gaining in popularity among all types of investors in the UK. Ted Hood, CEO of Source, said: “ETFs are now attracting a wider group of investors in the UK. We are keen to offer access to key markets and interesting investment themes and opportunities in sterling, thereby avoiding the need for separate FX transactions.”

WisdomTree, a leading provider of exchange-traded funds (ETFs), has listed an additional 12 ETFs on the Mexican stock exchange, the Bolsa Mexicana de Valores (BMV). All 12 equity ETFs are listed in the special international section of the BMV, the Sistema Internacional de Cotizaciones (SIC).

By David Stevenson – I am, I freely admit, something of an energy bore. In various columns, I’ve been banging on for what seems like an eternity about my structural bias towards the energy sector and, in particular, the energy infrastructure niche. So, given this tireless campaigning for energy-focused ETFs and funds, it won’t come as a great surprise to readers that I think that Source has done us all an enormous favour by listing Europe’s first MLP ETF.

As more and more investors lose faith in active managers, they are increasingly turning to a compelling alternative – smart beta. Combining elements of both active and passive management, smart beta strategies have enjoyed significant inflows in the past few years and continue to see growing interest from investors. The latest evidence for this comes from FTSE, a global index provider, which has announced that assets under management in ETFs linked to the fundamentally weighted FTSE RAFI index series have topped $5 billion.

For providers of exchange-traded products (ETPs), 2013 is fast becoming a vintage year. Year-to-date net inflows reached a record $107 billion through the end of May 2013, a whopping 31% higher than the $82 billion seen during the same period last year, according to data from ETFGI. When added to the existing ETP pile, total assets under management in the industry now stand at an all-time high of $2.14 trillion across some 4,849 products from more than 200 providers.

MSCI, the world’s second largest provider of indices to exchange-traded funds (ETFs), has launched two new environmental, social and governance (ESG) indices – the MSCI Emerging Markets ESG Index and the MSCI ACWI ESG Index. The new indices, which have been designed to act as benchmarks for actively managed funds or underlyings for index-linked products such as exchange-traded funds (ETFs), reflect an increased emphasis among investors to incorporate ESG practices into investments.

With most mainstream markets and indices tracked by multiple exchange-traded funds (ETFs), ETF providers are increasingly having to find an edge to help their new funds stand out. Often this edge comes via a niche focus or by way of an alternative ‘smart beta’ index. The newly launched Barron’s 400 ETF (BFOR) fits nicely into this latter category. Listed on the NYSE Arca, the fund is based on the Barron’s 400 Index, a rules-based index tracking the performance of 400 equally weighted US companies with strong fundamentals.

Vanguard has expanded its presence in Europe with the cross-listing of seven Irish-domiciled exchange-traded funds (ETFs) on the NYSE Euronext exchange in Amsterdam and Paris. The Dutch and French debuts come less than two weeks after the asset manager broadened its European ETF line-up, which first launched in the UK in May 2012, and a little more than four months after it entered the Swiss market via listings on the SIX Swiss Exchange.

By David Stevenson – I’m fairly sure that readers of ETF Strategy are an intelligent bunch who know one end of a bad index from another, but even intelligent people make intelligent mistakes (I should know!). My big worry is that investors in ETFs don’t always understand what’s going on in their index. I worry that we spend an inordinate amount of time researching the asset class opportunity and a disproportionately small amount of time researching the index.