ETF Watch: Columbia Adds ‘Sustainable’ Funds

New funds combine fundamentals with environmental/social/governance scores.

Columbia has rolled out three “sustainable” ETFs on the NYSE Arca exchange today. The Columbia Sustainable U.S. Equity Income ETF (ESGS), the Columbia Sustainable International Equity Income ETF (ESGN) and the Columbia Sustainable Global Equity Income ETF (ESGW) each track Beta Advantage indexes that are derived from MSCI benchmarks.

The methodology scores and ranks companies based on security dividend yield, dividend growth and cash-based dividend coverage ratio factors, while also scoring individual companies based on environmental, social and governance (ESG) standards. Companies are excluded if they do not receive a sufficient score. Companies are weighted based on their scores and dividend yield.

ESGS comes with a 0.35% expense ratio and covers the 100 top companies in the MSCI USA Index that have been screened according to the fund methodology. ESGN also covers the top 100 companies from the MSCI World ex USA Index, and comes with an expense ratio of 0.45%. ESGW comes with an expense ratio of 0.40% and tracks an index of 200 components derived from the MSCI World Index.

PowerShares Plans Money Market Fund Of Funds

Invesco PowerShares has filed for an actively managed ETF that will invest in a portfolio of some of the safest available assets—money market mutual funds. The PowerShares Government Portfolio will invest in a portfolio of funds operated by Invesco with the intention of providing current income along with a high level of liquidity and low volatility. However, the fund will not seek to achieve the same objectives as those targeted by actual money market mutual funds—a stable NAV of $1.00—according to the prospectus.

The Invesco-branded portfolios that will be included in the ETF include the Treasury Portfolio, Government TaxAdvantage Portfolio, Government & Agency Portfolio and Premier US Government Money Portfolio. All fall into a category deemed “Cash Management” by Invesco. Each underlying fund will invest primarily in U.S. Treasury securities that are denominated in U.S. dollars.

The prospectus notes that the fund will generally allocate its assets on a monthly basis.

Additional Updates

• The Credit Suisse X-Links Merger Arbitrage Liquid Index ETN (CSMA), which launched in October 2010, saw its last day of trading on June 9, 2016. The ETN suffered from shallow trading and had less than $5 million in assets under management when it closed.

Contact Heather Bell at [email protected].