State Street launches ETF portal in Singapore

State Street Corporation has launched its Fund Connect online exchange traded fund portal in Singapore and has also received official approval to roll out the platform in Australia.

The US-based financial services group describes Fund Connect as a “leading global, primary market ETF portal” that provides access to more than 960 ETFs from 43 issuers.

The portal has 83 authorised participants and managed a notional volume of more than $2.7tn as of the end of 2021.

State Street said Fund Connect was now live in Singapore, where the manager previously provided back-office services for ETFs, including custody and fund administration.

This article was previously published by Ignites Asia, a title owned by the FT Group.

It said the move marked an “important milestone” as the Asia-Pacific region was the third-largest area for ETFs after North America and Europe.

Kevin Hardy, head of Singapore and south-east Asia at State Street, said the group’s ETF servicing team continued to leverage its scale and global footprint on behalf of clients.

The launch of the new platform marks a push by State Street into the ETF servicing business in the Asia-Pacific region in a bid to capture the significant growth of the ETF market in the area.

Fund Connect is a division of State Street Digital and part of the lender’s GlobalLink product suite.

The launch of the portal in Singapore comes shortly after the recent blow suffered by State Street Global Advisors, the asset management giant owned by State Street, which was dumped as manager of The Tracker Fund of Hong Kong, the largest ETF in the territory.

It emerged that SSGA would be replaced by Hang Seng Investment Management as manager of the HK$110.3bn (US$14.1 bn) Tracker Fund of Hong Kong by the end of September this year following a manager review.

*Ignites Asia is a news service published by FT Specialist for professionals working in the asset management industry. It covers everything from new product launches to regulations and industry trends. Trials and subscriptions are available at ignitesasia.com.