In an effort to facilitate the growth of the ETF market, Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. (ICE) has launched a new primary market platform to ease the process of creating and redeeming ETF units.
Among other things, ICE said that its new ETF hub offers a standardized, automated process for assembling and placing ETF baskets, which aims to bring standardization and boost efficiency in the primary market for ETFs.
“Even with the increase in assets and trading volumes over the last ten years, faster growth has been inhibited due to the lack of standardization in the primary market,” said Ben Jackson, president of ICE, in a statement.
“With ETF Hub, we are building a new ecosystem that will provide key infrastructure to boost efficiency and standardization across the ETF marketplace,” he added.
The new platform has been launched for domestic equity funds to start. ICE said that fixed income funds will be added in the fourth quarter. It plans to expand to custom baskets and U.S.-listed international exposures in 2020.
“As the growth of the ETF industry accelerates, it is essential for the infrastructure powering the market to scale rapidly. The ETF hub brings new efficiencies to the market and creates an open environment where participants can interact effectively to offer greater choice for our clients,” said Samara Cohen, co-head of iShares markets and investments at BlackRock.