The Nasdaq OMX Group (NasdaqGS: NDAQ) plans to expand its exchange trading fund indexing operations, targeting foreign exchanges and highlighting additional areas of growth.
John Jacobs, executive vice-president at Nasdaq, said that fund providers are working on Nasdaq index-based ETFs for Asia and Latin America exchanges this year, reports Chris Flood for Financial Times.
Jacobs stated that Nasdaq intends to challenge rivals like S&P Dow Jones Indices, MSCI and FTSE Group that have capitalized on the quick growth in ETFs. The greater competition could help drive down fees for indexing, which could trickle down to lower investor expenses.
“The indexing market needs to be disrupted,” Jacobs said in the FT article, adding that Nasdaq’s indexing fees were “only a fraction” of those charged by competitors.
Nasdaq’s renewed interest in the ETF space comes after the PowerShares QQQ (NasdaqGM: QQQ), which has $45.5 billion in assets under management, celebrated its 15-year anniversary on March 10. ETFs that track the Nasdaq-100 index are now listed in China, India, Japan, Korea, Singapore and Israel exchanges.
“It was the QQQ that really put ETFs on the map for retail investors,” Jacobs added.