The annual trek to sunny South Florida is once again upon the ETF industry; a time to reflect, prognosticate and network with our colleagues at the Inside ETFs Conference. It is an interesting time in the industry; change continues to be the only constant, but it feels like it is developing more rapidly these days. Recent regulatory rulings, fee announcements, consolidation, assets flowing into fixed income products, and perhaps fundamental shifts in operational strategies can all pose challenges for the industry in the coming year.
The big three ETF providers remain in complete control of the assets in the industry but there continues to be sizeable pockets of opportunity for the more niche players. As assets continue to flow into ETFs, there remains a significant amount of revenue opportunity in the not fully developed areas such as the alternative/thematic investment themes.
Issuers need to adapt to take advantage of the many opportunities the changes will bring as they come into focus in 2020. These include the use of technology, applying regulatory easing to their advantage, investors’ need for performance driven products in a changing market environment, and reaching distribution channels digitally to name a few.
The Inside ETFs Conference will showcase many of these points during the impressive panel discussions featuring prominent speakers. However, it’s the conversations in the hallways, at the dinner tables, the cocktail hours, and of course, the hotel pool cabanas that may be more informative.
We anticipate the following to be key topics discussed inside and outside the conference that will influence the decisions we make as industry professionals.
ETF BILD welcomes all comments and suggestions.