Fidelity and Blackrock have formed a strategic alliance to allow greater access to the iShares ETF range.
Fidelity brokerage customers will be able to trade 65 BlackRock iShares ETFs without paying a commission, up from 30 funds currently. It will include the 10 iShares Core ETFs, as well as a range of international, domestic, specialised equity, fixed income and commodity approaches.
The two companies will work together to develop passive sector-based strategies, which are designed to complement the funds already on offer through BlackRock’s iShares platform.
BlackRock will also help Fidelity develop an investment strategy for clients based on a mix of ETFs and will support some of the firm’s own efforts to start a new line of equity sector ETFs.
Boston-based Fidelity, which manages some $1.7 trillion, mostly in mutual funds, has largely been left behind in the ETF explosion of the past decade.
By contrast, BlackRock acquired top ETF provider iShares in 2009. Among its nearly $4 trillion of total assets, it oversees $708 billion of ETFs.