Russell to Roll Out Global Indexes

Responding to the burgeoning growth in international and global mutual funds, Russell Investment Group is planning to launch global indexes in the fourth quarter, The Wall Street Journal reports.

The indexes will include all-cap, large-cap and small-cap indexes, including one modeled after the Russell 2000. Following those releases, Russell will then introduce sector, style and single-country indexes.

The amount of money flowing to international equity funds is remarkable. Last year, such funds had total assets of $86.31 billion; so far this year, investors have poured an additional $72.24 billion into international such funds. "What we are doing is responding to our client base and the marketplace," said Kelly Haughton, strategic director at Russell.

Jim Wiandt, publisher of indexuniverse.com, said Russell is in a good position to compete with the Morgan Stanley Country Indexes (MSCI) because of its strong base of institutional clients. He also noted that with so many asset management firms flocking to offer exchange-traded funds, and a scarcity of international indexes, it is likely that ETFs that track the new Russell international indexes will come to market.

"With all the new ETF providers in the business and the limited amount of international indexes available, I would be shocked if no ETFs came out and traded on these indexes," Wiandt said.

The staff of Money Management Executive ("MME") has prepared these capsule summaries based on reports published by the news sources to which they are attributed. Those news sources are not associated with MME, and have not prepared, sponsored, endorsed, or approved these summaries.