Effective Monday (7/1/2013), 270 iShares ETFs received new names. Ticker symbols and CUSIPs remain unchanged. In many cases, the name alterations consist simply of changing the words “Index Fund” or “Fund” to “ETF,” making them consistent with the naming structure of recent iShares launches.
Another noticeable change is the removal of many of the index provider identifiers, such as Barclays, Dow Jones, S&P, and FTSE. Most of the MSCI, Russell, and more recognizable S&P indexed products kept their index origin as part of their names.
The index name removal provides future flexibility for iShares. At this time, it is not clear whether the eliminated index names are for the purposes of making index provider changes, moving to self indexing, negotiating lower licensing fees, or if the BlackRock iShares team believes their inclusion in the product name provides little or no value.
Change highlights:
- Suffixes of “Index Fund” and “Fund” changed to “ETF”
- “Barclays” removed as index provider identifier for bond ETFs
- “Dow Jones” removed as index provider identifier for all ETFs except iShares Dow Jones U.S. ETF (IYY)
- “FTSE” and “FTSE EPRA/NAREIT” removed as index provider identifiers for all ETFs except iShares FTSE China ETF (FCHI)
- “S&P” removed as index provider identifier for all ETFs except S&P 100, S&P 400, S&P 500, S&P 600 ETFs, and S&P GSCI Commodity-Indexed Trust (GSG)
- “Investable Market Index” removed from international ETF names
- The prefix of the term maturity corporate ex-Financials ETFs changed from “iShares” to “iSharesBond”
- It most cases, the changes resulted in welcomed shorter names
Complete list of iShares name changes
Disclosure covering writer, editor, and publisher: No positions in any of the securities mentioned in article, but long some ETFs in referenced list. No positions in any of the companies or ETF sponsors mentioned. No income, revenue, or other compensation (either directly or indirectly) received from, or on behalf of, any of the companies or ETF sponsors mentioned.