In another predictably quiet week for ETF launches, Lyxor was ‘on-trend’ with the debut of a new suite of ‘ecosystem’ funds designed to be consistent with the carbon emission reduction targets of the Paris Agreement of 2015. Lyxor says the ETFs, which track MSCI's Climate Change indices, provide investors with access to European, US, Emerging Markets and World equity exposures in a 'simple, transparent and cost-effective way'.

With the global coronavirus crisis still causing challenges for the global financial sector, there’s just a single ETF launch to report on this week, a new iShares ETF from BlackRock on Xetra and Börse Frankfurt providing investors with access to corporate bonds with a focus on sustainability. 

Vanguard is streamlining its Value Fund offering with the merger of two funds – the USD770 million Vanguard Capital Value Fund and the USD17.6 billion Vanguard Windsor Fund. 

…says Kenneth Lamont (pictured), Senior Analyst, Passive Strategies, Manager Research, Morningstar.

In a quiet week for ETF launches BlackRock kept things ticking over with the debut of not one fund, but a suite of three three ultrashort bond environmental, social and governance products. The new funds are all versions of existing iShares UCITS ETFs but with revised ESG criteria which explicitly excludes issuers involved in controversial weapons, nuclear weapons, conventional weapons, civilian firearms, tobacco, adult entertainment, alcohol, gambling, nuclear power, genetically modified organisms, oil sands and thermal coal…

Columbia Threadneedle Investments has suspended dealing in the Threadneedle UK Property Authorised Investment Fund (Threadneedle PAIF) and the Threadneedle UK Property Authorised Trust (Feeder Fund) from 12 noon on 18 March 2020. 

Execution-only ETF investment platform Wombat Invest has added medical cannabis to its range of investment themes aimed at 25 to 35 year olds. 

Invesco has launched two new China A-Share equity funds for both institutional and retail investors in the UK and a number of authorised countries across Europe.

This week’s new ETF launches include two bond-focused iShares funds, one providing access to emerging markets corporate bonds and the other to US Corporate bonds. Elsewhere, First Trust listed a cloud computing UCITS ETF on the Italian Stock Exchange, while Exchange Traded Concepts partnered with Qraft Technologies to debut an AI-powered fund offering access to dividend-paying US companies…

BlackRock Cash Management has filed an amendment to the registration statement for the BlackRock Money Market Portfolio to convert it to the BlackRock Wealth Liquid Environmentally Aware Fund (WeLEAF), the first environmentally aware money market product dedicated to the US wealth market.