iShares has revealed that UK financial advisers continued to increase their use of ETFs on wrap platforms in Q1 2013, with the amount of iShares’ assets held on major platforms reaching £985m, an increase of 16% on Q4 2012.

Pollyanna Harper, Head of Intermediary Sales UK at iShares, said: “In the three months since the implementation of the RDR, we’re encouraged to see a steady increase in the amount of assets advisers are holding in ETFs through platforms. Advisers and investors are becoming more aware of what ETFs are and the benefits they can offer”.

WisdomTree has expanded its product line-up with the launch of the WisdomTree US Dividend Growth ETF (DGRW). The fund has been listed on the Nasdaq Stock Market and provides exposure to dividend-paying stocks with growth characteristics. In keeping with the firm’s fundamental indexing approach, the fund will track the proprietary WisdomTree US Dividend Growth Index, a dividend-weighted index which blends characteristics of both active and passive investment styles.

Cambria Investment Management has added to its exchange-traded fund line-up with the launch of the actively managed Cambria Shareholder Yield ETF (SYLD). The fund, which has been listed on the NYSE Arca, is composed of US stocks that have historically ranked among the highest in paying cash dividends, engaging in share buybacks and paying down debt – three factors collectively known as “shareholder yield.”

FTSE Group, a London-based global index provider, has revealed that assets under management in exchange-traded funds (ETFs) linked to the FTSE EPRA/NAREIT Global Real Estate Index Series have surpassed $10 billion. The index series is one of the most widely followed gauges of property and real estate investment trust (REIT) performance and has been adopted by numerous ETF sponsors, including iShares, Lyxor, Deutsche Bank and First Trust.

Global short and leveraged exchange-traded product (ETP) assets rose by $4.4bn in the first four months of 2013, to $48.5bn, according to data released by Boost ETP. The growth in assets is a reflection, in part, of the increased breadth and depth of products available, improved education and understanding, and a general move by investors towards more transparent, exchange-traded products.

Source, a London-based provider of exchange-traded funds (ETFs), has announced the launch of the Source Morningstar US Energy Infrastructure MLP UCITS ETF on the London Stock Exchange. The ETF is linked to the Morningstar MLP Composite Index and is the first in Europe to offer dedicated exposure to US energy infrastructure Master Limited Partnerships (MLPs), which are booming as a result of the development of unconventional energy sources such as shale gas, tight oil and tar sands.

Recent figures released by the Investment Management Association (IMA), the UK fund management industry’s trade body, showed that in the first three months of 2013 following the introduction of the Retail Distribution Review (RDR) net retail sales fell to the lowest level in five years. While many active fund management groups may feel reason to complain, the introduction of RDR has proved a boon for ETF and index fund providers such as Vanguard.

First Trust has made its ETF debut in Canada with the launch of three AlphaDEX ETFs on the Toronto Stock Exchange. The AlphaDEX methodology is a transparent, rules-based weighting methodology designed to exploit possible mispricings and potential drawbacks of market-capitalisation-weighted benchmarks. The methodology has proved hugely popular in the US, where ETFs linked to it have accumulated assets in excess of $4 billion.

NYSE Euronext, a leading exchange operator and index provider, has celebrated the 10th anniversary of its Intellidex Indices. The indices, which debuted in 2003, were designed to identify those stocks within a particular market segment that have the greatest potential for capital appreciation. Following their immediate licensing to Invesco PowerShares, to serve as the basis for a range of ‘Dynamic Portfolios’ exchange-traded funds (ETFs), the indices were among the first ‘smart beta’ benchmarks to be adopted by the ETF industry.

SPDR ETFs, the exchange-traded funds platform of State Street Global Advisors (SSgA), has expanded its equity income line-up with the launch of global and pan-Asian ‘Dividend Aristocrats’ ETFs on the London Stock Exchange and Deutsche Börse (Xetra). Scott Ebner, head of global product development at SSgA, said: “Our approach to dividend investing at SPDRs has been centred around indices that not only favour high-yielding stocks, but also focus on the sustainability of yield”.