Goldman Sachs has introduced the Goldman Sachs Equal Weight US Large Cap Equity ETF (Bats: GSEW) which provides access to the 500 largest US-listed equities while mitigating some of the biases inherent in traditional market cap-weighted indices.

The ongoing price war in smart beta ETF fees has the potential to negatively impact the credit ratings of traditional active asset managers as well as smart beta ETF providers, according to credit rating agency Moody’s.

By Nicolas Rabener, Founder, FactorResearch.

In our recent research note “Smart Beta vs Factors in Portfolio Construction” we concluded there was no improvement in returns or decrease in drawdowns, compared to an improvement in the risk-return ratio when using Value & Growth factor exposures. However, the question remains if any of these offer diversification benefits, which is one of the few free lunches in the investment world.

Tokyo-based Daiwa Asset Management is planning to launch three new ETFs in Japan – the Daiwa MSCI Japan ESG ETF, Daiwa Japan Empowering Women ETF, and Daiwa FTSE Blossom Japan ETF. Each fund will provide exposure to locally listed equities while utilizing an environmental, social and governance (ESG) stock screening process. They are due to begin trading on Tuesday 26 September 2017.

Solactive has launched the Solactive US Large Cap Equal Weight Index, a new index that tracks an equal weight exposure to the US large-cap equity segment. The index will include the 500 largest US-domiciled equities and will underlie the forthcoming Goldman Sachs Equal Weight US Large Cap Equity ETF (Bats: GSEW). Steffen Scheuble, CEO of Solactive, said: “We’re excited to once again serve as an index provider to Goldman Sachs through the creation of such a timely and unique index.”

By Chandra Seethamraju, vice president of systematic modelling, Franklin Templeton.

For decades, Franklin Templeton has been a vocal advocate for active management. We believe the skills and insight human oversight brings should play a crucial role in the investment process. The emergence of risk-factor investing and the evolution of traditional indexes have opened up fresh opportunities to bring a human touch to what has traditionally been considered the passive exchange-traded fund space.

MSCI has released its index performance report for August 2017, breaking down the best and worst performing equity indices over this period by country, factor and sector. The index provider, which is one of the leading providers of equity indices to the exchange-traded fund industry, reports that all of its factor-based indices generated a positive return in August with the best performing factor during August being quality (1.4%) and the worst, enhanced value (0.2%).

Europe-listed ETFs are on track to set a new record for asset under management growth in a calendar year, according to the August edition of Lyxor’s monthly ETF barometer report. As of the end of August 2017, year-to-date (YTD) net inflows in the region amount to €64 billion, significantly above the prior YTD record of €51bn recorded in 2015, despite August bringing the lowest flows into equity ETFs since September 2016.

China Post has cross-listed its Market Access iSTOXX MUTB Japan Quality 150 Index UCITS ETF (MAJQ) to SIX Swiss Exchange (SIX). The smart beta equity fund will now be available to trade in yen on SIX, in addition to the existing listing in euros on Deutsche Börse (Ticker: M9SQ).

Franklin Templeton has made its exchange-traded funds debut in Europe with the launch of four smart beta ETFs on the London Stock Exchange and Deutsche Börse’s Xetra. Branded as Franklin LibertyShares and linked to custom proprietary indices, the launch includes a pair of multi-factor ETFs, one of which is SRI focused, and a pair of quality dividend ETFs. Patrick O’Connor, head of global ETFs at Franklin Templeton, said: “Our first European offerings aim to help investors achieve specific investment outcomes such as strong risk-adjusted returns, lower volatility and downside protection.”