Morgan Stanley Throws Hat In ETF Ring

Another active manager plans to stake its claim in the ETF frontier.

Morgan Stanley will be entering the ETF space, supported by industry veterans Anthony Rochte and Allyson Wallace, according to an article from Investment News today. 

Rochte recently joined Morgan Stanley as its global head of ETFs from Goldman Sachs, while Wallace joined as global head of ETFs capital markets from iShares. 

Rochte said that investors should expect to see a comprehensive range of strategies, brands and asset classes represented in the financial giant’s eventual lineup, with Morgan Stanley’s global head of distribution Jacques Chappuis noting that the funds would likely echo existing strategies already packaged as separately managed accounts and mutual funds.  

With the advent of the ETF Rule and nontransaparent actively managed ETFs, there has been a wave of asset management firms entering the ETF space in recent years with mixed success. Dimensional Fund Advisors made its ETF debut less than a year ago, and has established itself among the top 15 issuers during that time, with more than $47 billion in assets under management.  

Capital Group was a recent entrant in the ETF arena, rolling out a six actively managed ETFs just last month. However, Transamerica launched its first ETFs in 2017, only to announce its exit earlier this month, despite having accumulated more than $600 million across its lineup of five funds. The family will delist in early April.  

Morgan Stanley originally filed requests for exemptive relief to launch actively managed and index-based ETFs with the SEC back in June 2016, but the firm has yet to bring any ETFs to market. As of Tuesday, there are no recent filings with the SEC to start an ETF trust. 

Contact Heather Bell at [email protected]