There are now more than 300 exchange-traded products listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange following the launch of five exchange-traded funds (ETFs) from ETF debutant Purpose Investments.

ETF newcomer Purpose Investments is headed up by former Claymore Canada CEO, Som Seif.

Purpose Investments is headed up by former Claymore Canada CEO, Som Seif.

Its debut funds include the Purpose Core Dividend Fund (PDF), the Purpose Tactical Hedged Equity Fund (PHE), the Purpose Total Return Bond Fund (PBD), the Purpose Diversified Real Asset Fund (PRA) and the Purpose Monthly Income Fund (PIN).

“Over the past year we built Purpose from a blank slate and focused our efforts on tackling the issues that investors really care about,” said Seif, Founder and CEO, Purpose.

He added: “In our mind there were five areas that we needed to address with our products: smart investment strategies; low fees; transparency; ease of use; and tax efficiency. The launch of our first five funds represents a major milestone in our plan to make everyday investing better and cheaper for Canadians”.

With the addition of the new funds from Purpose Investments there are now 284 ETFs and 17 exchange-traded notes listed on the exchange. The number of listed products has increased by 40% in the past two years bringing the total market capitalisation to approximately $70 billion as of August 31, 2013.

There have been 30 new ETFs listed so far this year.

“The 301 exchange-traded products on Toronto Stock Exchange provide broad access and exposure to many asset classes, sectors and geographic regions, as well as many key investment strategies,” said Ungad Chadda, Senior Vice President, Toronto Stock Exchange.  “We are pleased to have achieved this new milestone and we are very proud of our solid track record of fostering innovation in the ETP universe.”

The exchange is now home to 10 providers, the others being Barclays, BMO, First Asset, First Trust, Horizons, iShares, PowerShares, RBC and Vanguard.