A multinational ETF giant its tripling down on its efforts here in the U.S.

"We're very much in expansion mode," said Fiona Bassett, managing director and head of passive asset management in the Americas for Deutsche Asset and Wealth Management. "We're really kind of in the formative stages of what we're trying to build out."

Bassett spokes yesterday at Deutsche Bank's midtown Manhattan offices at a press breakfast offering the bank's "ETF Outlook, Insights, and Trends". With more than $130 billion in ETF assets worldwide, Deutsche is one of the five largest ETF shops in the world and the second largest in Europe.

Bassett described her U.S.growth plans as built around the three pillars of distribution, product and thought leadership.

"Year-on-year we're the fastest-growing provider of any of the ETF players [in the U.S.]," Bassett said, adding that the overall U.S. ETF business is growing at about 26 percent per year. "Deutsche Bank has an enormous amount of value to bring to the U.S. market ... We're the only international player in the U.S. market."

"We've almost tripled our sales force in the last 12 months," said Mick McLaughlin, director and head of Deutsche's ETF distribution in the Americas. "We're not going after cheap labor. It's been a huge buildup."

McLaughlin predicts that every client will want two ETF partners, a U.S.-based one and a non-U.S.-based one (like Deutsche)

McLaughlin also told reporters that he and his team don't "channelize" their distribution efforts. Instead, they go after institutional, retail, and ETF strategist business all together.

"We want to win thought leadership," McLaughlin said.

Dodd Kittsley, director and head of ETF national accounts and strategy, also spoke at the breakfast, presenting Deutsche's latest whitepaper from its ETF business. 

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