(Bloomberg) -- JPMorgan Asset Management is elevating Travis Spence — a 20-year veteran of the firm — to global head of its $190 billion exchange-traded fund business.
Spence, who begins immediately, now oversees all aspects of the business from product development to capital markets to distribution, according to a press release Thursday. He will continue to be based in London.
Chief among his responsibilities in the top job is building on JPMorgan’s success in the actively managed ETF arena. The firm’s active funds have taken in $27 billion globally this year, one of the industry’s biggest hauls, data compiled by Bloomberg show. While offerings such as the $34 billion JPMorgan Equity Premium Income ETF (ticker JEPI) — which debuted in May 2020 — have helped to vault JPMorgan up the league table, the firm is looking to catch the next wave.
“It’s absolutely all about active — the ETF vehicle itself has proven to be the vehicle of choice for investors,” Jed Laskowitz, JPMorgan Asset’s chief investment officer and head of asset management solutions, said in a phone interview. “We doubled down on active three years ago, and we’re going to double down again.”
That entails not only launching new products, but supporting existing funds through marketing and investor education, Laskowitz said. He expects that active ETFs could make up 20% of total industry assets in a decade or so, from roughly 8% now.
Spence takes over from Bryon Lake, who departed earlier this year to become a partner at Goldman Sachs Asset Management. Spence was most recently JPMorgan Asset’s head of ETF distribution across Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Before that, he was the international head of the fixed-income investment specialist team and also led the global liquidity Asia business.
--With assistance from Andrew Harrer.
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