US investment bank Goldman Sachs NYSE:GS is understood to be looking for a buyer for its ETF Accelerator platform, according to press reports on Monday.
The ETF Accelerator platform is a separate entity from the core Goldman Sachs ETF business, and is designed to help third party ETF managers to launch their own ETFs.
The launch of the ETF Accelerator platform was designed to help Goldman Sachs to compete in the third party ETF arena, where white label platforms assist fund managers with the launch of specific ETFs. Such platforms can be useful for firms which may only be contemplating a handful of products.
While Goldman Sachs had said it had a strong pipeline of ETF launches for the platform, to date it has only managed to get one launch away in Europe. This was an AI-driven European equities ETF which was launched by Baader Bank on the Deutsche Boerse in June of this year. Prior to that Goldman Sachs had used the platform to launch five other ETFs in the US market.
Goldman Sachs claimed yesterday it had still not made a decision on the future of its ETF Accelerator. But Rebecca Anderton-Davies, who had been looking after the EMEA side of the business, departed from the bank in October to take up a chief of staff role at Barclays Bank, seemingly leaving ETF Accelerator somewhat rudderless.
