National Bank of Canada | Best Overall ETF Liquidity Provider/Market Maker in Canada | Best Market Maker/Authorised Participant – Equity ETFs in Canada | Best Market Maker/Authorised Participant – Fixed Income ETFs in Canada | Best Institutional ETF Broker in Canada | Best ETF Research Provider in Canada
In this Q&A interview, firstly, Daniel Straus, Managing Director, ETFs & Financial Products Research, National Bank of Canada Financial Markets, explains why his firm’s research division is an important part of their award-winning team across the board, and then Frederic Viger, Managing Director, Co-Head of Institutional Sales ETFs – Equity Derivatives, adds his comments on the firm’s further wins.
Why do you think you won this award for Best ETF Research Provider in Canada?
Daniel Straus: This award for Best ETF Research Provider in Canada reflects the cross-disciplinary collaborative environment that is part of the culture at National Bank of Canada Financial Markets. Our research team is one leg of the full-service table of ETF industry offerings. We work alongside Canada’s most active and efficient market makers, but we also lend our expertise to providers large and small; we have experts to assist in product development and structuring, trading, market making, and yes, independent ETF research that our full-time team of analysts and associates is privileged to publish. We seek to add value to all ETF market participants, be they investors, advisers, or fund providers, and we do this with a spirit of intellectual honesty and objectivity. The goal is always to help the client first.
What is the size and scale of your business at the moment?
Daniel Straus: I sit on a team at National Bank that is purely a research operation. We have the highest respect for the traders and money managers who are in the trenches implementing ideas with “real money” every day, but our position as brain trust within National Bank’s research department lets us crunch numbers and sift data, like the nerds we are. We cover all 1,346 ETFs in Canada (at last count) amounting to CAD340 billion in assets under management, as well as the 3,000 ETFs in the US with USD7 trillion in assets.
Frederic Viger: For nearly 20 years we have focused on building a comprehensive full-service ETF offering to support ETF issuers, advisors, retail investors, and institutional money managers. We are successfully accomplishing this through a relentless pursuit of superior technology and development of our talented personnel. As a result, we have maintained top share of secondary market ETF volume and we are the Designated Broker on more than any other market maker in Canada. Furthermore, we house the top ETF research team in the industry, which boasts a broad following by investors, advisors and various media outlets.
The awards received reflect the cross-disciplinary collaborative environment that is part of the culture at National Bank of Canada. We have retained the industry’s top experts in various areas related to ETFs including our team of technology specialists, as well as our nimble trade support and operations teams that have been able to adapt to the fast-changing ETF market and regulatory environment. In addition, our prime brokerage and retail structuring teams have been instrumental in driving idea generation with issuers looking to innovate.
Being awarded five ETF Express awards further inspires us to help grow the ETF ecosystem in Canada. As the top ETF desk in the country, we seek to add value to all ETF market participants and we do this with spirit of intellectual honesty and objectivity. The goal is always to help clients first.
