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”.

Vanguard has expanded its European suite of low-cost exchange-traded funds (ETFs) with the launch of four new funds on the London Stock Exchange. The new ETFs complement the firm’s existing London-listed line-up, which debuted in May 2012. Axel Lomholt, Vanguard’s Head of International Product Development, said: “In the US, Vanguard has been very successful in this area, gathering nearly $290 billion of assets since its first ETF launch in 2001. We think that the same low-cost, straightforward approach will prove equally popular in Europe”.

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.

Asset class performance has been very mixed so far this year with currency volatility re-awakened and softening global economic data suggesting more difficult times ahead, according to Stephen Cohen, Head of iShares EMEA Investment Strategy & Insight. So what can investors do? Cohen proposes four strategies: overweighting defensive equities and equity income; using developed market equities to access emerging markets; playing Japan via a currency-hedged solution; and mitigating interest rate risk in fixed income and looking at local currency emerging markets debt.

Indexing investment giant Vanguard has launched its intermediary business in Hong Kong and revealed plans to expand access to its products to investors throughout Asia. The firm is also set to announce the listing of its first locally domiciled exchange-traded fund (ETF), the Vanguard FTSE Asia ex-Japan Index ETF, in Hong Kong. Vanguard is the third-largest global ETF provider, with $280 billion in ETF assets.

Bank of China (HK) and FTSE Group have announced a partnership to develop a new suite of indices designed to measure the performance of Renminbi (RMB)-denominated bonds issued in offshore jurisdictions. The indices will be structured to help global investors to better capture the opportunities in the so-called ‘dim sum’ market and to provide an industry standard benchmark to meet increasing international demand for access to RMB-linked fixed income products, particularly exchange-traded funds.

FTSE Group, a leading global index provider, has launched the FTSE ET100 Index, an index measuring the performance of companies whose core business is in the development and operation of environmental technologies. There are now 21 indices in the wider FTSE Environmental Markets Series, a number of which are linked to by investment products, such as the Euronext Paris-listed EasyETF FTSE Environmental Opportunities 100.

Smart beta is a term that seems to have suddenly emerged out of nowhere to describe the rise of a new form of ‘passive’ investing. The very words themselves conjure up a certain egg-headed technical prowess, implying that all the other beta trackers out there are just “back of the class” dullards, market capitalisation based, one-trick ponies that don’t do all the clever stuff that smart beta trackers can accomplish with their quantitative prowess. Scratch beneath the surface though and we discover a slightly more honest admission by the ETF industry.

David Stevenson has joined ETF Strategy as a weekly columnist. David is the author of the popular Financial Times Guide to Exchange Traded Funds and Index Funds and writes for the FT, Investors Chronicle and Investment Week. “I’m really excited to be writing a regular weekly column for ETF Strategy – in a very short period of time this online publication has established itself as the best source of analysis and research for investors who use ETFs here in Europe. Over the next year I can guarantee you that there’ll be many more developments at ETF Strategy, so watch this space!”, said Stevenson. In his debut column he considers European equity ETFs.

Guotai AMC has revealed plans to launch China’s first cross-border exchange-traded fund (ETF). To be listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange, the Guotai Nasdaq-100 ETF (513100) will enable Mainland China-based investors to physically track the technology-heavy Nasdaq-100 Index. The emergence of cross-border ETFs on local stock markets such as the Shanghai and Shenzhen exchanges will significantly enhance the trading efficiency of overseas investments for Chinese investors.