But at the end of the day, don’t expect the United States to give up its first-place position in the ETF industry anytime soon. McCarthy sees it remaining the dominant market for the foreseeable future.
Citi’s Role
McCarthy says Citi is well-positioned to serve the needs of a growing and changing industry. “We have a strong services operation, a strong capital market presence globally,” he says. For an asset manager looking to have everything in one place, Citi’s offering is a powerful one. [How to Trade Large Blocks of ETFs Efficiently.]
“We’re helping to bring the asset manager from strategy to IPO,” McCarthy says. “We offer a solutions-based offering, where they can utilize us for multiple components.”
One question remains: will Citi actually launch ETFs itself? You may have to wait – there are no current plans to do that, according to McCarthy. “Our focus is to enable our clients’ ETF innovation, not to compete with them.”
McCarthy came to Citi from Brown Brothers Harriman, where he worked for six years as their global ETF product manager.
Neeraj Sahai, Global Head of Citi’s Securities and Fund Services, believes that “Jeff’s extensive market experience and product expertise will complement Citi’s emerging market capabilities and help enable our asset manager clients launch new ETF products on a comprehensive basis.”
Heather Hayes and Max Chen contributed to this article.