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.

BlackRock, the firm behind iShares, the world’s largest provider of exchange-traded funds (ETFs), and Euroclear, a leading provider of post-trade services, have unveiled plans to revolutionise ETF trade processing and settlement across Europe. At present, all cross-exchange listed ETFs in Europe settle in the national central securities depository of the exchange where the trade is executed, often causing inefficiencies when ETFs are traded across borders. BlackRock and Euroclear are looking to circumvent the current arrangement by piloting an ETF with an international security structure.

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.

MSCI, one of the world’s largest providers of indices to exchange-traded funds (ETFs), has introduced the MSCI China A High Dividend Yield (HDY) Index, a new index measuring the performance of high yielding China A-shares. The new index includes stocks with a track record of sustainable and consistent dividend payouts and dividend growth, and is designed to serve as a benchmark for investors targeting the high-dividend yielding domestic China opportunity set or as the basis for index-linked financial products such as ETFs.

Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management has announced the launch of two ‘industry-first’ exchange-traded funds (ETFs) on the NYSE Arca: the db X-trackers Municipal Infrastructure Revenue Bond Fund (RVNU) and the db X-trackers Regulated Utilities Fund (UTLT). The new funds offer unique investment opportunities in markets not previously served by ETFs – an increasingly tough ask given the recent explosive expansion of the ETF universe.

SSgA has added two more funds to its roster of ETFs on the NYSE Arca with the launch of the SPDR S&P Global Dividend ETF (WDIV) and the SPDR Barclays 1-10 Year TIPS ETF (TIPX). WDIV is designed to provide investors with exposure to both developed and emerging market dividend-paying companies, through a globally diversified income portfolio strategy. TIPX, meanwhile, is designed to provide investors with access to Treasury Inflation Protected Securities (TIPS), a type of inflation-adjusted US government bond.

RobecoSAM, a sustainable investment specialist, and S&P Dow Jones Indices, one of the world’s leading index providers, have announced the launch of the Dow Jones Sustainability Diversified Indices Family. The indices’ diversified approach selects the most sustainable companies from the global or regional S&P BMI universe while ensuring that the resulting index has minimal country, sector or size biases relative to its reference S&P BMI benchmark.