The SEC finally granted exemptive relief for T. Rowe Price’s ETF structure in December, and Coyne said the regulator recently gave its final approval for the company's four ETFs, which it formally announced today. The funds will trade on the NYSE Arca exchange.
T. Rowe Price’s semi-transparent, actively managed ETF structure entails a proxy comprising a basket of securities and cash that’s designed to closely track the daily performance of a particular fund’s portfolio. In addition to the proxy portfolio, each business day before the start of trading the fund will publish the portfolio overlap, tracking error and the deviation between the proxy and the fund’s net asset value on a daily and rolling one-year basis. The company’s ETFs will disclose their full portfolios quarterly, with a 15-day lag.
T. Rowe Price hasn’t yet filed for approval with the SEC for other ETFs, but more are forthcoming.
“This is our first step in developing a broader ETF strategy,” Coyne said. “We’re looking to develop a much more comprehensive suite across different strategies where it makes sense to deliver an ETF, as well as thinking about potential new strategies that fit into the ETF structure.”