Franklin Templeton, a global investment management organization, has launched the Franklin Templeton Responsibly Sourced Gold ETF (FGLD), the firm announced.
The fund seeks to reflect the performance of the price of gold bullion and has a fee of 15 basis points, making it one of the lower priced gold funds on the market, according to Franklin Templeton.
The fund defines “responsibly sourced gold” as London Good Delivery gold bullion bars that were refined on or after January 1, 2012, and have been refined in accordance with London Bullion Market Association guidance. The association sets mandatory, minimum requirements that are designed to ensure, among other things, that it is mined through verified supply chains that meet certain ethical standards, Franklin Templeton said.
Todd Mathias, head of Franklin Templeton’s U.S. ETF Product Strategy, said in a statement, “As we continue to thoughtfully build our ETF platform for the future, we are excited to be an industry leader with this listing. The London Bullion Market Association’s responsible sourcing program aims to protect the integrity of the global gold supply chain by requiring approved refiners to demonstrate their efforts to respect the environment globally and combat money laundering, terrorist financing and human rights abuses. Many clients have considered gold’s historically low correlation to traditional stocks and bonds to be an important diversifier.”
Franklin Templeton’s ETF platform has more than 50 ETFs offered in the U.S. that offer active, smart beta and passively managed ETFs, the company said. The firm’s U.S. ETF platform had more than $12 billion in assets under management as of May 31.