UBS Asset Management has created and listed on the Aqua market of the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) the UBS IQ Cash ETF, a new exchange-traded fund (ETF) targeted at investors and advisers seeking for a cash product which 'delivers regular income, capital stability and cash liquidity'. The UBS IQ Cash ETF offers exposure to a portfolio of investments comprising bank deposits and bank certificates of deposit. The investment objective of the ETF is to provide exposure to Australian cash with 'regular income at competitive rates', and aims to provide investors with a total return that exceeds the Reserve Bank of Australia Official Cash Rate before fees, expenses and taxes.

The investment mandate of the fund is to invest in cash and "cash equivalent" investments issued by Australian banks, Australian subsidiaries of foreign banks and Australian branches of foreign banks, in each case regulated by the Australian Prudential Regulatory Authority (APRA). The fund's investments will include at call bank deposits, overnight bank deposits, and bank certificates of deposit. A minimum of 50% of the fund's net asset value will ordinarily be invested with the "Big Four" Australian Banks, including Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ), Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA), National Australia Bank Limited (NAB) and Westpac Banking Corporation Limited while a maximum of 50% of the funds' net asset value will ordinarily be invested with the non-Big Four banks. All investments will be denominated in Australian dollars.

BNP Paribas dispatches new range of industrial metals ETCs
BNP Paribas Arbitrage Issuance has launched six new exchange-traded commodities (ETCs) on Xetra and Börse Frankfurt. The new ETCs enable investors to participate in the performance of futures contracts on individual industrial metals. Futures contracts represent physical delivery of commodities with the option of cash settlement.

The relevant contracts are traded on the London Metal Exchange (LME) and include aluminium, lead, copper, nickel, zinc and tin.

Deutsche Börse's product range in its ETF and exchange-traded products (ETP) segment currently comprises more than 1,148 ETFs, 244 ETCs and 132 exchange-traded notes (ETNs). Deutsche Börse's Xetra Europe is one of the top trading venues for ETPs with an average monthly trading volume of around €13bn.

Canada's Redwood launches new ETF series of connected wealth funds on NEO
Redwood Asset Management, a wholly owned subsidiary of Purpose Investments, has received final approval from Aequitas Neo Exchange and Canadian securities regulators to launch a new series of ETFs including the Redwood Core Income Equity Fund (RDE) and the Redwood Tactical Asset Allocation Fund (RTA).

'These ETFs are versions of our volatility-managed tactical asset allocation and core income equity funds,' said Peter Shippen, president and chief executive officer of Redwood Asset Management. 'They represent a necessary extension of distribution of our unique strategies, broadening access and choice for investors seeking truly active ETFs." stated.

The new ETFs add to Redwood's suite of active ETFs launched in March 2017. To date, Aequitas Neo Exchange has listed 16 ETFs, for a total of 32 different symbols from five ETF providers.

Cambria seeks to capitalise on 'favourable option trading opportunities'
Cambria Investment Management, a California-based investment management firm and issuer of ETFs, has expanded its ETF lineup with the debut of the Cambria Core Equity ETF (CCOR). The Cambria Core Equity ETF 'uses proprietary models and analysis of historical portfolio profit and loss information to identify favourable option trading opportunities, including favourable call and put option spreads,' according to Cambria.

CCOR has 57 holdings and ten of the 11 S&P 500 sectors are represented in the new ETF. Industrial and technology stocks combine for 34.6% of the ETF weight while consumer staples and healthcare names combine for another 27.6%. 'The strategy seeks to combine the long-term compounding benefits of stocks with the goal of improving risk management to minimize portfolio drawdowns,' said David Pursell, CCOR's senior portfolio manager.

Other Cambria trackers include the Cambria Global Asset Allocation ETF (GVAL) which holds 'actively valued stocks from Greece, Russia, Ireland, Hungary, Spain, Austria, Brazil, Czech Republic, Israel, Italy and Portugal. Overall, Cambria has more than US$700m in ETF assets under management (AUM).

Optimal launches 'factor allocator'
Optimal Asset Management (OAM), a US asset manager offering institutional class factor strategies to registered investment advisers (RIAs) through ETF-based implementations has launched Factor Allocator, a visualization tool to help institutional investors and investment advisors identify, visualize and implement investment factors that drive portfolio returns.

Factor Allocator is a free, web-based educational and visualization tool that features more than 20 years of historical factor-based index data from S&P Dow Jones Indices. The tool includes a 'Factor Playground' feature which provides visual feedback on the impact of various factor choices. Additionally, a 'Factor Fit' tool helps financial professionals by estimating the underlying mix of factors that drive the returns of a mutual fund, ETF or active manager. The Factor Fit tool can be used to evaluate whether it might be appropriate to substitute an investor's mutual fund or active manager holdings with a combination of low-cost ETFs that target similar returns drivers as the mutual fund or other core holding, with the added benefits of scientific diversification and low fees.

'As smart beta, factor based investing and style tilted strategies become more mainstream, there is an urgent need for easy-to-use tools to help investment professionals educate themselves about how to implement factors in their core portfolios,' said Vijay Vaidyanathan, PhD, chief executive officer of OAM. 'Factor portfolios that seek to outperform and reduce risk at low cost can play a transformative role in client portfolios.'

Ideology-driven ETFs enter bond market
Inspire Investing, a California-based ETF provider targeting companies with so-called biblical values, is planning to bring to market the first religiously focused fixed-income fund. The Inspire Corporate Bond Impact ETF will be based on the Inspire Corporate Bond Impact Index, which has around 250 investment-grade, intermediate-term bonds issued by companies with market capitalizations of more than US$5bn.

Inspire launched its Global Hope Large Cap ETF and its Small/Mid Cap Impact ETF have accumulated a combined US$60m in assets under management.

Danske bets on Euro banks
Danske Bank has issued DB Eurostoxx Banks Sprinter 2017 (ISIN DK0030398540), a new index-linked note linked to the performance of the Eurostoxx Banks index. The notes are issued at a price of 100, carry no interest and will be redeemed at maturity at a price linked to the performance of the underlying index. The notes are issued under Danske Bank's €5,000,000,000 Structured Note Programme dated June 22, 2016.

The notes were issued on May 10, 2017 and will mature on November 20, 2017. The notes will be registered with VP Securities.

Specialist ETF data vendor enters market
Ultumus, a London-based specialist financial data vendor backed by the ETF industry as a central point of access for all European ETF, ETC and ETN data, has entered the market. The firm will represent ETF instruments at each hierarchical level (provider, umbrella, fund, subfund, share class and multiple listings) with standard industry identifiers and the application of legal entity identifiers (LEIs) to link each hierarchical level within the fund structure, all delivered via 'a proven, robust and well-established platform'.

Ultumus will also engage with the source publishers to drive the standardisation of ETF naming conventions and build the most accurate and fully comprehensive overview of the global ETF market available today, alongside all required ETF composition data, including flows and AUM metrics, according to said Bernie Thurston, Ultumus CEO. Ultumus  services include Ultumus Green Book - a complete snapshot of all global ETFs, ETNs and ETCs reference data; Ultums Global ETF Market Monitor - a notification service for new global ETF launches and listings; and Ultumus ETF Edge - a source of 'near real time' daily global ETF composition data (creation, redemption, tracking and excluded asset baskets) available via an API.

ETFs/ETPs listed in the US reach US$2.8tr AUM record
Assets invested in ETFs/ETPs listed in the United States reach a new record US$2.8tr at the end of April 2017, according to ETFGI. The US ETF/ETP industry had 2,011 ETFs/ETPs, from 112 providers on three exchanges at the end of April 2017.

In April 2017, ETFs/ETPs listed in the US gathered US$36.09bn a record amount of net inflows for April marking the 14th consecutive month of net inflows. Equity ETFs/ETPs gathered the largest net inflows with US$26.41bn, followed by fixed income ETFs/ETPs with US$8.83bn, while commodity ETFs/ETPs experienced net outflows of US$889m.

Year to date, net inflows stand at a record level of US$169.71bn. At this point last year there were net inflows of US$45.31bn. iShares gathered the largest net ETF/ETP inflows in April with US$24.21bn, followed by Vanguard with US$9.93bn and Schwab ETFs with US$2.53bn net inflows.

YTD, iShares gathered the largest net ETF/ETP inflows of US$78.53bn, followed by Vanguard with US$50.43bn and Schwab ETFs with US$9.21bn of net inflows.