New York Stock Exchange Seeks to Bolster ETF Business

The New York Stock Exchange is taking long-anticipated steps to beef up its proprietary indexes to increase its share of the low-cost exchange traded fund business, CBSMarketWatch reports.
The Big Board has for years extended unlisted trading privileges to 60 ETFs that trade on The American Stock Exchange, which has worked diligently to position itself as the primary market for 126 ETFs. The NYSE is also looking to increase the number of ETFs listed directly on its trading platform.
ETF trading volumes on the Big Board have grown by 8% this year, particularly in Barclays Global Investors' $3.3 billion iShares Dow Jones Select Dividend Index and $1.2 billion iShares Lehman TIPS ETFs. BGI is the manager of two ETFs that track indexes licensed by the NYSE: the iShares NYSE 100 and iShares NYSE Composite. Previous efforts by the Big Board to introduce a suite of indexes connected to Morningstar's nine style boxes were criticized by investors for copying successful investments and met with lackluster success in gathering assets.