Below extract courtesy of Investmentnews.com and Trevor Hunnicutt
An ambitious European ETF firm backed by former iShares leader Lee Kranefuss charged into the U.S. Tuesday, launching its first fund and throwing down the gauntlet to a “stale” industry.
The firm, Source, is the seventh largest in Europe’s smaller ETF industry and 23rd globally. As it enters the United States, Source will be competing for assets with an increasingly entrenched group of three providers — iShares (owned by BlackRock Inc.), the Vanguard Group Inc. and State Street Corp. — and dozens of smaller players.
While at iShares before it was acquired by BlackRock in 2009, Mr. Kranefuss, Source’s executive chairman, led the firm’s efforts to popularize the concept of cheaply trading entire markets over exchanges much like a stock, the core concept of the original exchange-traded funds. The industry managed tens of billions in the early 2000s; today, it’s a $2.7 trillion business.
Mr. Kranefuss, who built iShares into a $300 billion business between 2000 and 2009, today calls the industry “rather stale,” arguing a newcomer needs to shake things up.For the remainder of the story from InvestmentNews.com please click here