Watch for the U.S. Deutsche Asset Management [profile] team to launch more ETFs in two key areas: smart beta and fixed income.

Luke Oliver Deutsche Asset Management Director

Luke Oliver, director and head of ETF capital markets for DeAM's passive arm in the Americas, confirms that risk-adjusted, factor, and emerging market ideas all in fixed income are possible areas for future ETF development for the firm. As for smart beta, Oliver sees a bright Deutsche future in "multi-factor" ETFs. He calls factor investing the "core focus" for their sales team.

"There's room for more twists on this," Oliver tells reporters at a DeAM press breakfast in New York. Rob Bush, vice president and ETF strategist, and Tanuj Dora, vice president and PM, also presented at the meeting.

Oliver declined to talk specifics in terms of future products but noted that DeAM has some new stuff in filings with the SEC. Overall, he says, the three ideas that drive DeAM's ETF development are "new exposures, risk-adjusted exposures, or bringing efficiencies to existing markets." Bush describes factor investing as "the intersection of active, passive, and alternatives." And Dora notes that fixed income ETFs are "really solving challenges in the underlying bond market itself," such as with currency-hedged fixed income ETFs or interest-rate-hedged fixed income ETFs.

In 2016 DeAM launched several fixed income and smart beta ETFs in the U.S. And they added people, too.

"We've hired 11 people onto the platform," Oliver says. "That hiring is in all different parts of the business."

DeAM doesn't have specific open Americas passive positions to fill at the moment, Oliver adds. Yet watch for the team to expand down the line.

"We definitely plan to keep growing the business," Oliver says.

DeAM now has $13.9 billion in passive AUM in the U.S. 

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