CFRA, one of the world’s largest providers of independent investment research, has launched a new data product focused on Canadian-listed Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) that provides CFRA clients with the same level of detail the firm has long made available covering the US ETF landscape.Users will be able to get in-depth looks at Canadian ETF constituent holdings, granular classifications and key reference fields, which include issuer, expense ratio, strategy, and underlying index, as well as historical returns for each fund since inception.
“The Canadian ETF marketplace is one of the largest in the world, with well over CAD150 billion in assets and more than 30 fund sponsors that have products listed on Canadian exchanges,” says Aniket Ullal, Head of ETF Data & Analytics for CFRA. “Until now, there has not been a data solution that captures the nuances of the different ETF share classes specific to the Canadian marketplace. We’ve sought to fill that void, while also leveraging our proprietary fund data framework created specifically for ETFs, so these fast-growing new funds aren’t forced into out-of-date categories and classifications.”
“We’re very excited to add this Canada-focused ETF data offering to our US capabilities, and look forward to announcing similar data and analytics offerings focused on the world’s other major ETF marketplaces,” adds Ullal, who prior to joining CFRA was the founder of First Bridge Data, LLC, which was acquired by CFRA in 2019.
In the investment research space, wealth managers, financial advisors, and investment management firms will be able to scan the universe of Canadian ETFs to find specific asset classes, strategies, and types of exposures while simultaneously comparing specific ETFs based on cost, investment objectives, and holdings. It will also be possible to analyse the underlying constituents across ETFs to better understand sector, factor, and other risk exposures.
This new data offering can be easily integrated into existing ETF screeners, portfolio analytics tools and other applications, allowing CFRA clients to build and share more robust offerings with their own clients.
“CFRA’s ETF data is used on our platform to screen ETFs, generate machine-created narratives, and as a data feed for our robo advisor,” explains Prakash Hariharan, President & CEO of AnalytixInsight, a Canadian-based AI company providing financial analytics through its CapitalCube platform. The AnalytixInsight engine is capable of over 100 billion daily computations and utilises CFRA’s ETF data in the development of its robo advisor, which is being prepared for commercial deployment. “Our technical teams have worked together for several months to improve data quality on North American ETFs and to develop future product offerings. We are pleased to support CFRA’s launch of its Canadian ETF data set,” Hariharan adds.
Todd Rosenbluth, Head of Mutual Fund & ETF Research for CFRA, adds: “For years, we have been guiding investors and advisors that it is crucial they look ‘under the hood’ of any ETF on their respective radar. With First Bridge’s industry-leading approach, investors can get the most in-depth view possible, not just as to what securities specific ETFs hold but also what impacts those holdings may have on other parts of their respective portfolios.”
