IndexIQ has reduced the management fee charged for its IQ Hedge Multi-Strategy Tracker ETF (NYSE Arca: QIA) from 0.75% to 0.53%. Including the acquired fund fees, the total expense ratio will now be 0.76%, effective 1 November 2017.

Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), the owner of NYSE, has completed its acquisition of the index business of Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BofAML) encompassing more than 5,000 fixed income, currency and commodity indices. With the completion of the acquisition, ICE estimates AUM benchmarked against its combined fixed income index suite will be nearly $1 trillion.

The world’s largest high-yield bond ETF has come in for some criticism from a bond mutual fund manager at London and Edinburgh-based investment manager Kames Capital. Stephen Baines, co-manager of the Kames Short Dated High Yield Global Bond Fund, says the performance of the iShares iBoxx $ High Yield Corporate Bond ETF (NYSE Arca: HYG), which has returned 70.8%, or 5.5% per annum, over in the ten years since its launch, “looks somewhat disappointing” when compared to the broad high-yield market.

Deutsche Asset Management is to cross-list the db X-trackers iBoxx USD Emerging Sovereigns Quality Weighted UCITS (EUR Hedged) ETF (XQUE) on the SIX Swiss Exchange. The fund provides currency-hedged exposure to US dollar (USD) currency denominated tradable debt (bonds) issued by governments or central banks in emerging market countries.

Deutsche Asset Management has unveiled the db x-trackers iBoxx USD Emerging Sovereigns Quality Weighted EUR-hedged UCITS ETF (XQUE) on Deutsche Börse’s Xetra and Frankfurt exchanges. The fund provides smart beta exposure to high quality emerging market government bonds while mitigating currency risk between the US dollar-denominated bonds and the ETF’s trading currency – the euro.

Index provider IHS Markit has launched the Emirates NBD Markit iBoxx USD Sukuk Index, in collaboration with Middle East banking group Emirates NBD. The index, which has been designed so as to be suitable to underlie ETFs, aims to provide a transparent benchmark for investors in USD sukuk.

European ETF provider Lyxor has launched a new fund providing investors with exposure to UK inflation expectations. The Lyxor UK£ 10Y Inflation Expectations UCITS ETF (LON: UKBE) targets the spread between traditional bond yields and those of inflation-linked bonds, thus offering a pure play on inflation expectations without exposing the investor to changing interest rates.

THEAM, a subsidiary of BNP Paribas, has launched three new fixed income ETFs on Euronext Paris, providing exposure to portfolios of Eurozone inflation-linked government bonds, US Treasuries from across the yield curve, and euro-denominated investment grade corporate bonds. Isabelle Bourcier, Head of Index Operations and ETFs at THEAM, notes the listing of these ETFs is a concrete expression of THEAM’s desire to diversify the firm’s current product offering.

Deutsche Asset Management has launched the world’s first ETF delivering dedicated exposure to the Asia ex-Japan US dollar corporate bond market. Debuting on Deutsche Börse’s Xetra, the db x-trackers II iBoxx USD Liquid Asia Ex-Japan Corporate Bond UCITS ETF (Xetra: ALQD) provides European investors with easy access to a rapidly growing market that has expanded by over 24% per annum over the past five years. Anson Chow, Deutsche AM’s Head of ETF product development, Asia Pacific, said: “Asia US dollar investment-grade corporate bond issuance increased from around $21bn in 2010 to around $63bn in 2015. This is an important and growing section of the global bond market”.

With negative interest rate policies being adopted by several central banks in the developed world, investors are beginning to turn their attention back to emerging market debt (EMD) in a hunt for yield. Already this year $5.7bn has flowed into EMEA-domiciled EMD ETFs. Antoine Lesné, Head of SPDR ETF Strategy & Research EMEA at SSGA, believes the asset class may offer an attractive return thanks to a healthy real yield differential, improving fundamentals and supportive monetary policies.