BNY Mellon to Take on State Street With Hires in European ETFs

(Bloomberg) -- Bank of New York Mellon Corp., which oversees about $30.6 trillion in assets, is hiring in Europe as it bulks up its exchange-traded funds business to tap into increasing investor demand for cheaper passive products.

The company has named Scott Coey to the newly created position of head of relationship development for hedge funds, ETF and structured products in Europe the Middle East and Africa, a spokesman said. Coey previously ran the firm's broker dealer services in the region. The appointment follows the hiring of Jeff McCarthy from Nasdaq Inc. in January as chief executive officer of ETFs.

“We are investing significantly,” McCarthy said in by email. “Senior level appointments, like Scott's and others to come, reflect our continuing commitment to strengthen our resources and subject-matter expertise across ETFs.”

BNY Mellon is the second-largest administrator of ETFs behind State Street, which oversees more than $2 trillion in the market and services 55 percent of the world's ETF and exchange-traded product assets. McCarthy says the trends toward passive management and use of ETFs and Smart Beta strategies are expected to grow, particularly in Europe.

Assets invested in ETFs and ETPs listed globally hit a record $3.5 trillion at the end of 2016, according to industry consultant ETFGI.

To contact the reporter on this story: Sarah Jones in London at sjones35@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Neil Callanan at ncallanan@bloomberg.net, Ross Larsen, Andrew Blackman