As most of Europe seems to go on holiday in August, I was expecting the month to close without any big news in the ETF world. But in the last week or so of the month, two stories emerged that could have major long-term implications for the industry.
The obvious one is the entry of HSBC into the European ETF market with the launch of a FTSE 100 ETF on the LSE. ‘The world's local bank', which already has a significant stable of index funds, has clearly decided that the ETF market is large enough, and growing fast enough, to warrant a big new player. What is interesting is that the bank is not looking to differentiate itself through the choice of index or the investment approach - instead, it is banking on its brand, offering a "high-quality household name that you can trust". The other, less obvious story is that of the Commodity Fut...
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