It's about to get a lot faster, and easier, to launch active, transparent ETFs.

So said Laura Morrison, head of global index and exchange-traded products at the NYSE, when speaking at the Women in ETFs opening bell ceremony at the exchange last week. Katy Burne of the Wall Street Journal reports that the SEC's regulatory notice on March 4 is the last step before the regulatory agency puts the NYSE Arca's speedier process out for public comment. Morrison said that NYSE is "working behind the scenes" with the SEC to make sure this proposal gets through.

The SEC rejected the NYSE's January proposal along these lines, and the exchange filed again last month. Active, transparent ETFs (not to be confused with the less-frequently-transparent ETMFs being prepped by Eaton Vance and its licensees) now take up to 18 months to go through the approval and launch proposal. The NYSE's proposed "generic listing standards," if adopted by the SEC, could reduce the whole process to just two to three months. And the WSJ notes that "other exchanges could also copycat the rule amendment, bringing the same generic standards to their platforms."

Morrison reportedly said that NYSE Arca has more than 100 active ETFs awaiting listing. 

Edited by: Neil Anderson, Managing Editor


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