Last year marked 30 years since the first ever Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) was first issued by State Street Global Advisors in 1993. Despite the three decades anniversary of ETFs, last year, for the first time since 2020, our respondents gave an overall average score of below 6.00 (Very Good), suggesting that their satisfaction with their providers may be waning slightly.
In 2022 the overall score sat at 6.07, up slightly from the score of 6.05 in 2021.
In fact, nearly every category saw a decline in scores in 2023, with the exception of Compliance Support, sitting at 6,14, and Technology (5.56) and Pricing (5.52). Those who have read our other reports will recognise that it is often Pricing which takes the hardest hit from our respondents.
Last year the message was clear – there is work to be done here. Now the question is, has enough been done?
It’s been a year of launches, high-profile personnel moves, huge mandates landed – BlackRock’s appointment of BNY Mellon alongside State Street in Ireland – and of course the much-talked about (yet not applicable to our survey) Bitcoin ETFs.
Currently Global Custodian Research is running our annual ETF Administration Survey, and we would love to hear from you.
What you need to know:
Clients will be asked to assess the quality of service received from their exchange trade fund administrators over the last 12 months. The FAQs can be accessed here: ETFA 2024 FAQ
This year’s survey, like last year will be run on Global Custodian’s survey platform, not only being more streamlined for clients but allowing providers to validate responses through the backend. The backend will also allow ETF administration providers to submit their provider questionnaire.
This short questionnaire is aimed at allowing us to better understand market and provider changes that might impact results.
The survey will cover a list of 11 categories including Client Service, On-boarding/ launch support, ETF Basket Services, Fund Accounting, Reporting to Institutional Investors/ Authorised Participants, ETF workflow process, Securities lending, Price, Compliance Support, Technology and ETF servicing model.
Clients will be asked to rate each category from Unacceptable to Excellent on a seven-point scale. Those providers wishing to understand their performance in more granular detail than is available through the survey can also purchase our Research Plus data reports.
Clients are invited to respond here. The deadline to respond is 13 May 2024.
For further information or if you want to get involved as a provider or a client contact surveys@globalcustodian.com.