Invesco PowerShares, the Wheaton, Ill.-based money-management
firm behind the worldâs biggest Nasdaq 100 exchange-traded fund,
filed paperwork with Securities and Exchange Commission detailing
plans to market four separate U.S.-focused bank-, insurance and
finance-related ETFs.
The new funds would add to a number of bank-focused funds it
already has on the market, though none seems to have gone
gangbusters as far as asset gathering. For example, its PowerShares
Dynamic Banking Portfolio (NYSEArca:PJB) has less than $13 million
in assets, and its PowerShares KBW International Financial
Portfolio (NYSEArca:KBWX) has $2.2 million, according to data
compiled by IndexUniverse.
The four proposed funds, all of which will be listed on Arca,
the New York Stock Exchangeâs electronic trading platform, are
the:
- PowerShares Bank Portfolio
- PowerShares Regional Banking Portfolio
- PowerShares Capital Markets Portfolio
- PowerShares Insurance Portfolio
State Street has two of the more successful finance-related
funds now on the market. The Financial Select Sector SPDR ETF
(NYSEArca:XLF) had just shy of $5 billion in assets as of Aug. 5,
and the SPDR KBW Bank ETF (NYSEArca:KBE) had $1.31 billion. Such
ETFs have traded with great volatility in the marketâs ebb and
flow as the economy has worked its way -- in fits and starts -- out
of the worst slump since the 1930s.
The Four PowerShares Funds
The distinction between the two banking ETFs PowerShares put
into registration is that the one will focus on larger money center
banks and leading regional banks and thrifts, while the âRegional
Banking Portfolio will focus on mid-capitalization regional banks
and thrifts, the filing said.
The insurance ETF will include publicly traded U.S. companies
active in the insurance industry, including, but not limited to,
personal and commercial lines, property/casualty, life insurance,
reinsurance, brokerage and financial guarantee companies, according
to the filing, which was dated Aug. 5.
Lastly, the capital markets fund will be based on a
float-adjusted, modified-market capitalization-weighted, index that
targeting publicly traded companies that do business as
broker-dealers, asset managers, trust and custody banks or
exchanges, according to the paperwork.
PowerShares didnât say what the fundsâ tickers or annual
expense ratios would be.
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