Impact investment firm Inspire Investing has launched the Inspire 100 ETF (BIBL) a new 'biblically responsible' exchange-traded fund (ETF), the fourth addition to this range. Inspire 100 ETF invests in the most 'inspiring, biblically aligned large companies (US$20B+ market cap) in the US'. The new tracker fund is market cap weighted and designed to be the core equity holding of a portfolio. Any accrued dividends are paid out quarterly.

The Inspire 100 Index is a rules based, passive index which tracks the stock performance of the one-hundred highest Inspire impact scoring companies in the United States with market capitalizations above US$20bn. The index is market-cap weighted, rebalanced annually and calculated on a total return basis in US dollars. Inspire's proprietary process identifies companies doing 'amazing things like working to cure cancer, providing clean water solutions and otherwise being a blessing to their communities, customers, workforce and the world, while at the same time avoiding investments in companies involved in immoral activities like pornography and human trafficking'.

BIBL is managed according to biblically responsible investing (BRI) standards seeking to create meaningful impact in the world and helping investors align their investments to support biblical values. Inspire Investing has also launched the Inspire Global Hope Large Cap ETF, Inspire Small/Mid Cap Impact ETF, and Inspire Corporate Bond Impact ETF.

JP Morgan expands single factor line up via prop index range

JP Morgan Asset Management has expanded its ETFs line-up with the launch of five domestic single factor equity trackers designed to provide targeted exposure to address a specific need within a client's portfolio.

Each fund tracks a proprietary index derived from the Russell 1000 Index and holds 200-400 stocks, which are rebalanced on a quarterly basis. The funds have a price point at 0.12%. The JP Morgan US Value Factor ETF (JVAL) tracks the JP Morgan US Value Factor Index, which is comprised of US securities included in the Russell 1000 Index and selects constituents based on diversified measures of their valuation; JP Morgan US Quality Factor ETF (JQUA), tracks the JP Morgan US Quality Index, which is comprised of US securities included in the Russell 1000 Index and selects constituents based on their quality as measured by diversified definitions of their profitability, solvency and earnings quality; while the JP Morgan US Momentum Factor ETF (JMOM), tracks the JP Morgan US Momentum Factor Index, which is comprised of US securities included in the Russell 1000 Index and selects constituents based on their risk-adjusted return momentum.

In addition, the JP Morgan US Minimum Volatility ETF (JMIN), tracks the JP Morgan US Minimum Volatility Index, and the JP Morgan US Dividend ETF (JDIV) tracks the JP Morgan US Dividend Index. JP Morgan Asset Management's ETF suite features eighteen product offerings with over US$2bn in assets under management.

Assets invested in leveraged and inverse ETPs spike

Assets invested in leveraged/inverse exchange traded products (ETPs) listed globally have increased 14.1% in 2017 to reach a new record of US$77bn at the end of September, according to ETFGI's September 2017 Global Leverage and Inverse ETFs and ETPs Landscape report.

The leveraged/inverse ETF/ETP industry had 834 ETFs/ETPs, with 1,287 listings, assets of US$77.14bn, from 59 providers on 19 exchanges in 16 countries. Of these 834 ETFs/ETPs, 419 were leveraged products, with assets of US$43.56bn while 228 were inverse listings, with assets of US$16.55bn and 187 were leveraged inverse with assets of US$17.03bn.

Leveraged/inverse ETFs and ETPs gathered US$4.69bn in year to date net inflows with leveraged products suffering US$1.01bn in year to date net outflows, inverse ETFs/ETPs experiencing US$1.89bn in year to date net inflows and finally leveraged inverse gathering US$3.81bn in year to date net inflows.

ProShares is the largest leveraged/inverse ETF/ETP provider in terms of assets with US$23.82bn; Direxion is second with US$11.01bn, followed by Lyxor AM with US$4.81bn and Nomura AM with US$4.71bn.

Itiviti integrates ETF data from IHS Markit in delta one solution

Itiviti, a global technology provider for the capital markets industry, has entered into a strategic alliance with IHS Markitto to create a turnkey ETF solution integrating the Tbricks by Itiviti trading platform with Sola, the ETF data service from IHS Markit.

The proliferation of ETFs and related products has fuelled demand from global regulators and market participants for a fully-integrated trading solution, from composition through to quoting, hedging and risk. The solution combines the flexibility and performance of the Tbricks by Itiviti trading platform with the comprehensive managed data services offering from Sola, connecting real-time ETF and index static data to powerful pricing, trading and hedging tools.

IHS Markit offers a comprehensive suite of ETP services which support the complete ETP lifecycle, facilitate market research, simplify risk management and fuel investment strategies. The Sola set of products aggregates and generates crucial information, including daily portfolio composition, basket information, dividend forecasts and analytical datasets.

Virtus debuts in US Solactive's most favored nations emerging markets index

Solactive has licensed its new Solactive Most Favored Nations Emerging Markets Index, to be used underlying the newly launched Virtus Glovista Emerging Market ETF (EMEM US Equity). The ETF is the first Emerging Markets ETF in the US providing diversified exposure to a set of most favoured Emerging Markets countries according to Glovista's proprietary global macro country selection methodology, and is available for trading on the NYSE.

Solactive developed the index based on standard liquidity criteria, as well as global macro, quantitative and technical models provided by Glovista. Specifically, the Solactive Most Favored Nations Emerging Markets Index represents the aggregation of multiple models that capture macroeconomic trends (50% weight), bottom-up company-specific dynamics (30% weight) and relative price momentum dynamics (20% weight). Each country in the index is represented by, at most, the 50 largest stocks within each country.

As the index restricts maximum single country allocations to 10% of the overall portfolio, the ETF provides exposure to emerging markets, unconstrained from the requirements of traditional emerging markets funds whose mandates are tied to market-capitalization weighted benchmarks. Such benchmark constraints entail constant large exposure levels to China, South Korea and Taiwan. The Solactive Most Favored Nations Emerging Market Index is calculated as net total return and price return and is denominated in USD. Components are rebalanced monthly.

Exponential launches reverse cap weighted US ETF

Exponential ETFs has launched the Reverse Cap Weighted US ETF (CBOE: RVRS), a first-of-its-kind product that offers exposure to the S&P 500 stocks weighted by the inverse of their relative market capitalization. The strategy brings the weighted average market capitalization of the index down from US$162bn to US$16bn, while using the exact same stocks.

The RVRS portfolio is weighted based on a proprietary methodology. The rules-based, passive fund tracks the Reverse Cap Weighted US Large Cap Index comprised of all 500 publicly-traded companies in the S&P 500. However, contrary to most cap-weighted funds that skew their portfolio weightings in favour of the larger companies, RVRS offers investors exposure to the same US large-cap equities, but instead is overweight the smaller companies of the S&P 500, which have historically performed better. The ETF has an expense ratio of 0.29% and trades on the CBOE Exchange.

RVRS comes on the heels of the firm's recent successes, including the American Customer Satisfaction Core Alpha ETF (CBOE: ACSI), which racked up US$40.8m in assets under management, as of the quarter-ended September 30, 2017.

Legal & General enters European ETF market

Legal & General Investment Management (LGIM) has acquired Canvas, the European ETF platform owned by ETF Securities. The transaction includes the platform and embedded infrastructure for ETFs, as well as US$2.7bn of existing assets across 17 products and partnerships.

Canvas has developed a range of ETFs working with partners and directly in a Undertakings for Collective Investment in Transferable Securities (Ucits) compliant ETF format. It manages investments for a number of ETFs on the platform, while also allowing partners to launch and manage their own ETFs. The platform will remain open architecture for differentiated products and for the large majority of ETFs to be managed and distributed by LGIM.

The acquisition provides LGIM's clients with access to one of the fastest growing segments in asset management, broadening LGIM's geographical reach and product range.