Partner Kathleen Moriarty Quoted in Money Management Executive Roundtable Discussion

Kathleen Moriarty, a partner in the firm’s Financial Services Practice, participated in a roundtable discussion on growth in exchange-traded funds (ETFs). A transcription of the discussion was published in Money Management Executive. In describing current ETF trends, Ms. Moriarty said, “The filings for future products we see are overwhelmingly for emerging markets and global commodities, and within that, fixed income.” She said the ETF market has changed considerably since it began. “When ETFs were first introduced, they were simple in that they represented indexes that were known to everybody. That’s why the SPDR Trust, based on the S&P 500 Index, was chosen to be the first. As things have gotten more stratified and as products have become more sophisticated, ETFs are being structured around complex instruments being held,” she said. Later on in the conversation, she added, “When we launched the SPDR in 1993, we never expected mutual funds to use ETFs to equitize their cash. So in a way, what people say is true: Liquidity begets liquidity. The more things that you have that are easy to trade and easy to price, the more they are used; the more they are used, the more other things happen. It all interlocks.” (“Liquidity and Transparency Drive ETF Administration,” September 27, 2010)