Deborah Fuhr Hi, this is Deborah Fuhr, managing partner of ETFGI. This is ETF TV – a platform for insights on the use and trading of ETFs. Today we are doing an interview with Dan Draper, the global head of ETFs at Invesco. He will be sharing his insights with us.
Hamish McArthur Dan, welcome to ETF TV.
Dan Draper Thank you. Great to be here.
Hamish McArthur Nice to have you. Now, from your perspective, how is the battle between active and passive management playing out?
Dan Draper Well, actually, at Invesco, we don’t really consider it a battle. We think now that, you know, serving clients is really becoming more important on offering all capabilities. And I think it’s really the model that our senior management, led by Marty Flanagan, have put in place really over the years through organic growth, and even more recently through some acquisitions to ensure we’re offering solutions that include both active and passive solutions to the clients.
Hamish McArthur Great, and what risks do you see in the exchange traded product space?
Dan Draper Well, I think in terms of just education, that tends to be even though the products now have celebrated third decade of existence. I still think you’re using the products correctly, particularly for most clients it’s around good asset allocation and understanding how they can best use them around diversified strategies. So I think you get those parts, and I think in many parts of the world as well, understanding how to trade the liquidity elements, I think there’s still a huge amount of education to be done. It’s a fast growing area, but I think we still have lots of future growth.
Hamish McArthur Fantastic, and finally, what innovations in the exchange-traded product asset class do you find most exciting?
Dan Draper Oh, wow. Well, it’s an interesting question. I think there are a lot of areas that are exciting. The, if you will, the investment strategies, so Invesco has made its name in large part by smart beta. We’re doing strategies that are around traditional market cap weighted, so I think we continue to see opportunities there. In the United States, we purchased the Guggenheim business and got a technology called BulletShares, which allows final maturity of ETFs, which we think are great for fixed income laddering strategies. If we look here in Europe, we’ve launched the first block chain, thematic ETF. So I think on the content side it’s interesting. I think, looking at the wrapper itself, you’re just finding new ways to ensure that our market makers can continue to improve on the liquidity, getting them better information, more timely information. So there’s really, I think, innovation throughout the ETF ecosystem.
Hamish McArthur Fantastic. Dan, thank you for being on ETF TV.
Dan Draper Pleasure, thank you very much.
Deborah Fuhr Thank you for watching ETF TV. To view our other shows, please go to ETFTV.NET and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter. Thank you.