The latest news in investment offerings, financial products and other services relative to wealth advisors and their clients.

BlackRock
BlackRock has launched a suite of iBond exchange-traded funds (ETFs) for the first time in Europe via a UCITS range of four ETFs.

After a fixed period, the ETFs will mature and return a final pay out to investors. The funds provide cost-effective access to the corporate bond market, with the diversification, transparency, and liquidity benefits of ETFs, the firm said in a statement.

The range provides exposure to investment grade corporate credit across various countries and sectors in each ETF. These ETFs offer two defined maturity dates respectively, in December 2026 and 2028, in both dollars and euros, giving investors flexibility across currencies, maturities, and yield exposures.

iBonds ETFs can be used by investors to complement savings accounts, in an easily understood structure, which aims to achieve a return through a combination of capital growth and the income on the fund’s assets which is derived from the underlying bonds’ coupon payments.

The ETF suite can also be used to add scale to bond portfolios offered by investment advisors and enhance operational simplicity. Each iBonds ETF holds a diversified basket of bonds, and can replace a large number of holdings, minimising the need to source and manage individual bonds.

"iBonds ETFs are designed to mature like a bond, trade like a stock and diversify like a fund, all in a cost-efficient and transparent ETF wrapper," Brett Pybus, global co-head of iShares fixed income ETFs at BlackRock, said.

BlackRock, which launched the first iBonds ETF in the US in 2010, says that it is seeing a “significant demand” for these funds, with inflows of $8.1 billion over 2022, and $5.2 billion over 2023, at the end of July. Fixed income UCITS ETFs have had a record start to the year in Europe in terms of asset gathering, with $28.2 billion of inflows at the end of July, the firm said.

Investment manager Franklin Templeton is also optimistic about the outlook for ETFs. "They worked well last year in a volatile market and we see continued demand going forward," Lofti Ladjemi, senior ETF sales specialist for the UK and Ireland at Franklin Templeton, said. The firm recently launched its sustainable Franklin MSCI Emerging Markets Paris Aligned Climate UCITS ETF. See more here.