BlackRock Seeks to Run Exchange-Traded Funds Using Own Indexes

By Miles Weiss

BlackRock Inc. (BLK), the world’s largest money manager, is seeking regulatory clearance for its iShares exchange-traded funds to follow proprietary indexes rather than those developed by third parties such as Standard & Poor’s.

The application, filed by iShares yesterday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, would allow future and existing funds to use in-house indexes the firm will create. IShares, a San Francisco-based subsidiary of BlackRock, ranks as the biggest provider of index-based ETFs with some $649 billion in assets under management in more than 460 funds.

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