Northern Trust Dives
By Journal of Indexes Staff

Northern Trust Dives Into The ETF Pool

Northern Trust has made its long-anticipated move into the ETF marketplace. The Chicago-based banking giant has filed a prospectus for 27 new ETFs offering focused exposure to a wide range of international and global markets. The filing includes 20 country-specific funds, four international REIT funds and three global funds.

The funds will be branded as ''NETS.'' There is no word yet on listing sites or expense ratios.

There are a number of gems in the filing, but by far the most exciting is the NETS Dow Jones Wilshire Global Total Market ETF. This fund, along with the complementary NETS FTSE CNBC Global 300 ETF, will be the first truly global ETFs, combining U.S., international, developed and emerging markets exposure into a single ETF.

Beyond the global funds, the filing is distinguished by picking up some of the most popular local indexes around the world, like France's CAC 40 and Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index. It's an interesting approach for Northern Trust, which is looking to hack its way into an already-established market.