Leading ETF pack by being world's first

ETF Provider 

Winner

BetaShares Capital Limited

Finalists

Vanguard Investments Australia Limited 
iShares

Being the first in the industry to offer new and risk managed exchange traded funds (ETF) is the key to being the ETF Provider of the year, according to BetaShares.  

BetaShares developed the first currency ETFs, commodity ETFs, and currency-hedged ETFs, just one of the reasons why they believed they were so successful in the ETF market.  

Managing director and founder, Alex Vynokur, said the firm also created Australia's first and "perhaps the world's first" suite of products that "offered a managed risk methodology for equity investing." 

"The products were developed with the needs of Australian self-managed super fund and retiree investors in mind... probably a pretty good case and point [to be nominated for the award]," Vynokur said.  

He said the products allowed investors to access dividend funds, Australian shares and global shares, while "significantly lowering the volatility of returns and mitigating the downside risks of losses".  

The suite of three ETFs received over $200 million of inflows in the last 12 months, so they were "very successful in terms of client take up", Vynokur said.  

The products included Beta BetaShares Australian Dividend Harvester Fund, BetaShares Managed Risk Australian Share Fund and BetaShares Managed Risk Global Share Fund.  

"Betashares as a business is a leading ETF issuer in Australia, but uniquely so is an Australian born and bred business", said Vynokur.  

Finalist for the award, Vanguard Investments Australia, said their products were "the strongest in the market, offered investments in every investment class... were low cost, highly diversified and very transparent".  

Head of ETF capital markets Australia, Damien Sherman, said they extended their product range to give investors more alternatives, by launching two international fixed income ETFs, two international equity ETFs and were about to launch a corporate bond ETF.  

Another finalist, iShares, believed they were nominated as their "ETFs were of highest quality, as they leveraged the power of the world's largest asset manager, Blackrock."   

Head of iShares Australia, Jon Howie, said they also continued to innovate, with the launch of their global fixed income ETFs and their 'core suite', which gave investors access to building their own portfolios "at very low costs".