iShares has expanded its suite of bond ETFs with the launch of the iShares Yield Optimized Bond ETF (BYLD). Listed on the NYSE Arca, the ETF provides access to a wide spectrum of US bonds via an ETF of ETFs-type structure. Commenting, Matthew Tucker, Head of iShares Fixed Income Investment Strategy, said: “iShares Yield Optimized Bond ETF seeks to maximize yield while keeping risk in line with the broader US bond market. The addition of BYLD to our suite of iShares bond ETFs provides investors with another tool to help mitigate risk within their bond portfolio.”

The rise of smart beta products in the exchange-traded funds industry is a credit positive for asset managers with smart-beta focused ETF businesses, according to new report from Moody’s, a credit ratings agency. “The expansion of smart beta will benefit asset managers with businesses centred around smart beta the most,” says Stephen Tu, Vice President, Moody’s. “Invesco’s Powershares franchise, which offers smart beta ETFs, will benefit, as will BlackRock. Guggenheim may also benefit given the majority of its ETFs are based on non-traditional indexing.”

WisdomTree, a global provider of exchange-traded funds, has announced that its fundamentally weighted WisdomTree MidCap Dividend Fund (DON) recently surpassed $1 billion in assets. Listed on the NYSE Arca, the ETF provides exposure to the mid-cap segment of the US dividend-paying equity market. Luciano Siracusano, WisdomTree Chief Investment Strategist, said: “There are a variety of dividend-focused funds and investment strategies, but we believe the WisdomTree MidCap Dividend Fund (DON) provides the broadest exposure to the mid-cap segment of the US dividend-paying market.”

iShares has launched two new ETFs providing exposure to Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. Listed on Nasdaq, the iShares MSCI Qatar Capped ETF (QAT) and iShares MSCI UAE Capped ETF (UAE) are the first ETFs to provide single country exposure to two countries that MSCI will graduate from frontier markets to emerging markets status at the end of May. Patrick Dunne, Head of iShares Global Markets and Investments at BlackRock, said: “The launches of the iShares MSCI Qatar Capped ETF and iShares MSCI UAE Capped ETF meet an immediate need of investors awaiting the countries’ upgrade to emerging markets.”

Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management (DeAWM) has unveiled the db X-trackers Solactive Investment Grade Subordinated Debt ETF (SUBD). The NYSE Arca-listed ETF, the first of its kind in the US, is linked to the Solactive Subordinated Bond Index, a rules-based, market value-weighted index designed to track the investment grade, subordinated corporate bond market of US dollar-denominated corporate securities classified as subordinated. Subordinated bonds have the potential to produce higher yields than equivalent unsubordinated bonds and may provide attractive returns to investors capable of taking on additional risk.

Invesco PowerShares, a leading global provider of exchange-traded funds, has announced the launch of the PowerShares Variable Rate Preferred Portfolio ETF (VRP). The NYSE Arca-listed ETF offers income-seeking investors exposure to a portfolio of variable-rate preferred securities. Dan Draper, Invesco PowerShares Managing Director of Global ETFs, said: “We see strong demand for variable-rate preferred securities that offer the potential for high income and less interest rate risk than fixed rate preferred securities in this current market rate environment.”

According to the latest ETP Landscape Report from BlackRock, global ETPs gathered an impressive $33.5 billion in April, making it the best April on record for the industry. Europe was particularly strong. Ursula Marchioni, Head of ETP Research and Equity Strategy for iShares EMEA, said: “Europe-listed ETPs have attracted more assets in the first four months of 2014 than 2013 as a whole, with $20.6bn inflows year to date, or 106% of last year’s total.”

Flows into ETFs and ETPs listed in the United States rebounded in March gathering net inflows of $10.9 billion which, when combined with a small positive market performance in the month, pushed assets in the global ETF/ETP industry to a new record high of $1.73 trillion, according to ETFGI’s latest quarterly global ETF and ETP industry insights report. At the end of Q1 2014, there were 1,568 ETFs/ETPs listed in the United States, from 57 providers on 3 exchanges.

Emerging Global Advisors (EGA), a New York-based emerging markets specialist, has rolled out a self-indexed exchange-traded fund offering investors access to a select group of developed market companies with noteworthy exposure to emerging markets. Listed on the NYSE Arca, the EGShares Blue Chip ETF (BCHP) is linked to the EGAI Developed Markets Blue Chip EM Access Index, an equally-weighted 30 stock index designed to capture the market performance of quality developed market companies that have measurable, meaningful and growing revenue from emerging markets.