Months after an internal memo unveiled plans for Morgan Stanley Investment Management to launch an exchange-traded fund platform, the money manager has filed to offer four index ETFs with an environmental, social and governance focus.
Morgan Stanley plans to offer the Calvert International Responsible Index ETF, Calvert U.S. Large-Cap Core Responsible Index ETF, Calvert U.S. Large-Cap Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Index ETF; and the Calvert U.S. Mid-Cap Core Responsible Index ETF, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission Tuesday.
Calvert Research and Management is a Morgan Stanley Investment Management subsidiary.
The filing comes years after Morgan Stanley's involvement in some of the first ETFs. Twenty-six years ago, it was instrumental in the launch of the World Equity Benchmark Series, country index funds managed by Barclays Global Investors. The funds, which eventually became part of the iShares franchise of ETFs, were based on equity indexes developed by MSCI.
"They're entering a relatively crowded market, but I think they can succeed as they educate investors about their capabilities," said Todd Rosenbluth, head of research at VettaFi, a data and analytics provider. "They're too large a potential player to dip their toe in the ETF market, it's likely this is the beginning and not the end of their product development efforts."
A spokeswoman for Morgan Stanley declined to comment regarding the filing, citing regulatory rules. Morgan Stanley Investment Management, the asset management unit of Morgan Stanley, had $1.4 trillion in assets under management as of June 30.
Elsewhere, another investment manager, Argent Capital Management, on Wednesday announced the launch of what a spokesman said was its first ETF. The Argent Mid Cap ETF, a transparent, actively managed ETF, began trading on Nasdaq, the spokesman said. Founded in 1998, Argent Capital Management had $3.2 billion in assets under management as of March 31.
Ari I. Weinberg contributed to this story.
