Asset management price competition is perhaps fiercest in the ETF and index mutual fund spaces, and perhaps that will drive more fundsters to seek new indexing options.

One idea, pondered by the Financial Times' Stephen Foley and Robin Wigglesworth, is asset managers teaming up to create an industry "co-operative" or consortium to create indexes, an index-creater to rival the likes of FTSE Russell, MSCI, and S&P Dow Jones Indices. Unnamed sources tell the paper that some big shops are privately discussing the idea.

Steve Sachs Goldman Sachs Asset Management head of ETF capital markets

Steve Sachs, head of ETF capital markets at Goldman Sachs Asset Management, told the FT that such a consortium or joint venture "makes sense" and that "the drumbeat has become a little louder" over index fees. Lynn Blake, head of SSgA's equity ETF business, tells the paper that "everything is on table," though she declined to comment on the consortium idea specifically.

Indexing revenues for several big providers rose last year, the FT notes, to 409 million pounds ($530 million) for FTSE Russell, to $613.6 million for MSCI, and to $639 million for S&P Dow Jones. 

Edited by: Neil Anderson, Managing Editor


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