SEC officials say they have been trying to streamline the ETF approval process and move the simple applications more quickly, Reuters reported Tuesday. “There are certain alternative funds that are investing in asset classes that are raising interesting and complicated issues, but by and large, it’s a four-to-six months and sometimes shorter process,” Pershkow said in the story.
In the past it could take up to a year to launch new ETFs. [Active ETFs Stuck in Limbo at SEC]
The SEC’s 2008 proposal would allow certain types of ETFs to bypass the process of getting the necessary “exemptive relief” from the SEC to launch.
“That would help issuers and their sponsors because they wouldn’t have to incur the costs to file exemptive applications with us,” said Norm Champ, the director of the SEC’s Investment Management Division, in the Reuters article.”And if we could get some of this relief codified, it would also free staff up.”