ETFs cross multiple traditional boundaries in the financial services world, and we believe that investors in ETFs (and ultimately the ETF industry) will benefit from a more focused effort to improve information flow, investor education, and offer specific solutions to certain operational inefficiencies in the ETF marketplace. ETFIA believes that these products deserve specific focus within the financial industry. They are unique instruments that cross multiple traditional boundaries in investment management, fund servicing and distribution, trading operations, exchanges, and regulation. The principals at ETFIA have been directly involved in the ETF business since the very early days, and worked from all perspectives of ETFs, including the sponsors, exchanges, traders, and with regulators. This enables us to apply our unique understanding of the current and future challenges for the industry to overcome.

ETF Industry Association Releases April 2012 ETF Data Reports

Some of the key highlights from the April 2012 ETF Data report include:

• Assets in US listed Exchange Traded Funds (ETF) and Exchange Traded Notes (ETN) totaled approximately $1.20 trillion at April 2012 month-end, an increase of 6% over April 2011 month-end, when assets totaled $1.14 trillion.
• ETF/ETN net cash inflows totaled approximately $3.0 billion for the month of April 2012, bringing year-to-date 2012 net cash inflows to $58.9 billion.
• At April 2012 month-end, there were 1,458 U.S. listed products, an increase of 20% compared to 1,216 U.S. listed products at the same time last year.
• Fixed Income leads all categories year-to-date with $21.3 billion in net inflows.  April marks the 16th consecutive month of net inflows to fixed income ETFs.