State Street has been selected as exchange-traded funds (ETF) servicing agent for Fidelity Investments’ new range of semi-transparent, actively managed ETFs.
As part of the appointment, State Street will provide services including basket creation, dissemination, settlement, custody, financial reporting, fund accounting, order-taking, performance and investment analytics and transfer agency services to Fidelity’s new suite of funds.
Fidelity is the first asset manager to receive regulatory approval for three investment strategies, Fidelity Blue Chip Growth ETF (FBCG), Fidelity Blue Chip Value ETF (FBCV) and Fidelity New Millennium ETF (FMIL), which will be available through Fidelity’s proprietary proxy basket methodology.
The structure will allow Fidelity to deliver its actively-managed investment strategies in the ETF vehicles without the daily holdings disclosure requirement of fully transparent ETFs.
Greg Friedman, Fidelity’s head of ETF management and strategy, said: “Fidelity is pleased to work with State Street, an innovative leader in the exchange-traded fund ecosystem. Leveraging our heritage of active management, we believe that our new active equity ETFs and methodology will help asset managers offer differentiated strategies that had previously been unavailable in the ETF investment wrapper. We are also excited to offer the opportunity to license our active equity ETF technology.”
Frank Koudelka, global ETF product specialist at State Street, added: “The approval of semi-transparent proxy basket ETFs opens a new avenue for active managers to offer investment strategies while protecting its intellectual property. We are excited to be working with Fidelity on this unique offering and look forward to using our extensive experience, expertise, and innovative ETF servicing technology to support the firm with this exciting new product.”
