J.P. Morgan has been selected by investment management firm FFCM LLC to provide a suite of securities services, including fund administration, fund accounting and custody, along with prime custody services, for its newly launched family of equity ETFs, QuantShares.
The QuantShares ETFs will be "market neutral," holding both long and short positions in approximately equal dollar amounts. They are among the first ETFs that will engage in shorting physical securities. FFCM LLC has also chosen J.P. Morgan Clearing Corp. as prime broker for four of its seven new funds.
"We are pleased to be launching these funds that will leverage J.P. Morgan's ETF servicing with its prime custody solutions," said Bill DeRoche, founding member of FFCM LLC, the Boston-based investment adviser to QuantShares. "Our decision to partner with J.P. Morgan reflects our confidence in their ability to support us across this multi-faceted and diverse set of strategies."
"J.P. Morgan has a history of innovation in the ETF space," said Robert Caporale, head of new business development -- Americas, J.P. Morgan Worldwide Securities Services. "We look forward to delivering our market-leading offering of securities services solutions to FFCM for their newly launched ETFs." J.P. Morgan provides a full suite of services for the development, launch and servicing of ETFs. Industry-wide, J.P. Morgan currently services 200 ETFs with total assets of over $100 billion.
Devon George-Eghdami, head of Prime Custody Solutions for J.P. Morgan, said, "We are excited to be working with FFCM on the launch of their market-neutral equity ETFs which are among the first to utilize a combination of cash shorting and swaps. With our integrated prime broker, custody, fund administration, fund accounting and ETF specialist capabilities, J.P. Morgan is uniquely positioned to service FFCM."
The new QuantShares ETFs have been created to provide institutional and individual investors with access to several alternative innovative investment strategies, according to FFCM. Offering diversification and risk management, the funds are designed to produce returns with low correlations to the overall equity market. These returns are driven by exposure to well-known factors such as beta, momentum, quality, value, and market cap.
.jpg)