Fourth Annual ETF.com Award Winners Announced

NEW YORK, March 30, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- ETF.com, the world's leading authority on exchange-traded funds, has announced winners at the fourth annual ETF.com Awards, held tonight in New York City. More than 30 awards honored products, people and companies that shaped the industry in 2016.

Among the highlights:

• Jim Ross, global head of ETFs at State Street Global Advisors, beat a strong field to scoop the Lifetime Achievement Award. His first dealings with ETFs were as a State Street accountant working to bring the SPDR S&P 500 (SPY) ETF to market, and Ross has consistently advocated for closer relationships between issuers, investors and advisors.
• The SPDR SSGA Gender Diversity Index ETF (SHE) swept five wins, making it the most successful fund of the awards. In highly competitive categories, SHE won Best New ETF, Most Innovative ETF, Best New US Equity ETF, Thematic ETF of the Year and garnered the People's Choice Award. 
• VanEck Vectors Fallen Angel High Yield Bond ETF (ANGL) won ETF of the Year. The category recognizes funds with the greatest overall contribution to positive investor outcomes, and ANGL, with a methodology designed to exploit inefficiencies that occur when a bond is downgraded, garnered assets, performance, and this award in 2016.   
• iShares by BlackRock collected Best ETF Issuer. Judges recognized the sheer breadth of the firm's new ETFs brought to market during 2016, including four socially responsible funds, three funds with adaptive currency hedges, a family of multifactor sectors, a bolstered range of bond funds, and a small-cap version of the firm's minimum-volatility ETF.
• Nuveen, which has so far launched seven ETFs, took home Best New ETF Issuer. The firm has been cherry-picking its product launches, with a goal of entering sectors with latent institutional demand. As a result, Nuveen's products have already attracted close to $100 million in assets under management in less than six months.
• MSCI triumphed over peers for the third time to win Best Index Provider. The firm won judging praise for its environmental, social and governance (ESG) indices.

Dave Nadig, CEO of ETF.com, remarked: "This was a particularly exciting year for the ETF market, with innovative new products across the board, from new takes on fixed income, to smart beta and the emergence of environmental-, social- and governance-focused products."

Matt Hougan, CEO of Inside ETFs, which co-hosted the Awards, continued: "Many of the folks winning awards tonight, from Ritholtz Wealth Management to Nuveen, are new to the market. It's exciting to be part of the industry at such a vibrant time."

Awards were decided in a three-step process. Firms submitted nominations that were short-listed by the ETF.com Awards Nominating Committee comprising senior leaders at ETF.com, Inside ETFs and FactSet. Winners from these shortlists were then decided by the ETF.com Awards Selection Committee, featuring a number of independent ETF experts. They included:

• Kim Arthur, Founding Partner, Main Management
• Eric Balchunas, ETF Analyst, Bloomberg Intelligence
• Ben Blaisdell, US Trust
• Rob Glownia, RiverFront
• Ben Johnson, Director of Global ETF Research, Morningstar
• Tom Lydon, Editor, ETF Trends
• Phil Mackintosh, Managing Director, KCG
• Jason Nicastro, Senior Research Analyst, LPL Financial
• Tyler Mordy, President & CIO, Forstrong Global Asset Management
• Todd Rosenbluth, Director of ETF & Mutual Fund Research, CFRA
• Jim Wiandt, Founder, ETF.com

For more information and a complete list of the 2016 ETF.Com Award Winners, visit ETF.com.

About ETF.com

The world's leading authority on exchange-traded funds, ETF.com has delivered clear, independent and authoritative news, analysis and education about ETFs online and in print since 2001. The firm's marquee properties are its website, ETF.com, and its print publication, ETF Report.

ETF.com is a fully owned, editorially independent subsidiary of CBOE Holdings, Inc. www.etf.com.

About CBOE Holdings, Inc.

CBOE Holdings, owner of the Chicago Board Options Exchange, the Bats exchanges, CBOE Futures Exchange and other subsidiaries, is one of the world's largest exchange holding companies and a leader in providing investors cutting-edge trading and investment solutions. With 14 trading venues, CBOE offers trading across a diverse range of products, including options, futures, U.S. and European equities, exchange-traded funds, and multi-asset volatility and global FX products. www.cboe.com.

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SOURCE ETF.com

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