Having trouble getting those new leveraged, inverse or long/short alt ETFs to advisors? Reuters' Jessica Toonkel reports that big brokerage firms often delay complex new ETFs and ETNs, preventing them from hitting the market until they conduct due diligence.

The wirehouses are wary of FINRA and other regulators, which have been sharpening their scrutiny of complex new funds.

"It used to be once a product got a ticker everyone could get it," an anonymous source at the SIFMA Complex Products conference told Toonkel. "Now the firm blocks the ticker until they approve it for sale."

Paul Weisenfeld, managing director of funds at Morgan Stanley Wealth Management, told Toonkel that firms have decided that the effort to conduct due diligence on new products isn't worth the effort.
< br /> Toonkel pointed out UBS and Wells Fargo as two wirehouses that have systems in place to make sure that the more complex products are only offered to certain clients. Robert Forsyth, UBS' director of exchange-traded products, explained his firm's policy.

"At UBS we block many products because they are too new and we haven't had a change to review them," he said. "With so many new products coming out, we just don't have the time or manpower to review all of the products."

FINRA chief executive Richard Ketchum told conference attendees that the agency is "looking closely at how firms sell complex products, with a particular focus on potential conflict of interest and training." 

Edited by: Chris Cumming


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