ATLANTA & NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. (NYSE:ICE), a leading operator of global exchanges and clearing houses and provider of data and listings services, today announced it has added new functionality to ICE ETF Hub to support US-listed fixed income exchange traded funds (ETFs). Since launching last week, fixed income primary trades for 17 funds, including the iShares Core U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF (AGG) and the iShares iBoxx $ Investment Grade Corporate Bond ETF (LQD), have passed through the system.
This new functionality enables authorized participants to submit creation/redemption orders for fixed income ETFs – including those containing domestic and international government bonds, corporate bonds, mortgages and municipal bonds. ICE ETF Hub is an industry-wide, open architecture, primary market platform for ETFs with the objective of creating a more standardized and simplified process for ETF creation and redemption.
“This functionality expands ICE ETF Hub’s capabilities to include fixed income ETFs, an area of the market that is expected to double in assets under management over the next five years,” said Ben Jackson, President of Intercontinental Exchange. “This feature also represents a key part of our effort to launch custom basket functionality for the creation/redemption process, helping to open the door to significantly more participation and innovation in the ETF industry.”
ICE ETF Hub aims to provide a standardized, automated process for assembling and placing creation and redemption baskets, a feature that offers critical efficiency gains for all market participants. As a result of a recently passed SEC rule, ETFs relying on the rule are permitted to use custom baskets if the ETF adopts written policies and procedures governing the custom process. ICE ETF Hub will provide infrastructure to support the use of custom baskets in the creation/redemption process.
ICE launched ICE ETF Hub in October with support for order taking for US-listed Domestic Equity ETFs. Additional functionality, including support for the assembly of custom baskets and US-listed International Equity ETFs, is planned for 2020. ICE ETF Hub also plans to establish connectivity next year to ICE Bonds’ trading protocols, including click-to-trade, portfolio auctions and request-for-quote (RFQ) and to other trading venues.
ICE ETF Hub is available to all market participants on an open basis, offering flexible access to third party order management systems, trading venues, proprietary software solutions and connectivity firms. For more information about ICE ETF Hub, visit: www.theice.com/etf-hub.
