BlackRock is to see the departure of Shane Kelly, vice president of the exchange-traded funds research team, a source close to the company has revealed.

Last month, the team lost its global head, Deborah Fuhr, one of the world’s top experts in the field, when it was announced that the firm’s research will be handed over to the BlackRock Investment Institute, which was set up in April. 

The reason behind Kelly’s departure and the next step in his career are unclear at this stage. He joined BlackRock in 2008 from Morgan Stanley.

ETFs have been under fire this summer, as commentators have argued that the increasing complexity and profusion of the products is causing some of them to not live up to client expectations. For example, the UK Financial Services Authority criticised providers for not properly explaining the risks they entail. But many also claim ETFs offer genuine benefits to investors, as they are cheap and tax efficient.

At the end of the second quarter, the company’s ETF platform, iShares, reported that its assets under management had increased by $7.5 billion to $631.9 billion.