The world’s largest provider of exchange traded funds, BlackRock’s iShares unit, now wants to manage its own indexes, according to regulatory filings.
The move could mark a new direction for for iShares, which investment manager BlackRock agreed to purchase from Barclays about two years ago.
BlackRock could join other ETF providers such as WisdomTree, Van Eck Global, Claymoreand IndexIQ who have based ETF offerings on their own in-house indices, reports Oliver Ludwig for IndexUniverse.
The BlackRock filings state that each new index will be rules-based and will hold equity and/or fixed-income securities, according to the report.
Currently, iShares ETFs are based on a variety of indices, including MSCI, Russell, S&P, Barclays, Dow Jones and FTSE. [ETFs Drive Innovation in Index Construction]
“The move comes as iShares’ dominant position in the U.S. ETF business has come under assault,” WSJ.com reported Friday afternoon. “The fast-growing popularity of ETFs with investors has meant that iShares’ assets under management and revenue have continued to expand rapidly. But its U.S. market share, which stood as high as 58% in 2007, has slipped to about 43% today, as low-cost competitors like Vanguard Group have grabbed new investment dollars from some of the most popular iShares funds.”
Max Chen contributed to this article.