State Street Global Advisors (SSGA) has created an ETF hub in southern Europe that will combine the issuer’s Italian and Spanish SPDR teams.
Based in Milan, the combined southern Europe division will be led by Francesco Lomartire (pictured), head of SPDR ETFs for Italy at SSGA and supported by the firm’s head of SPDR ETFs for Spain, Ana Concejero, who will act as deputy.
Andrea Calandra, senior ETF sales, SPDR, at SSGA, will focus on the firm’s Italian ETF business while Arturo De Cataldo, ETF sales, SPDR, at SSGA, will broaden his intermediary coverage to lead the expansion of its model portfolio offering.
The hub will enable SSGA to service demand for fixed income ETFs across the region while scaling other growth areas such as ESG investing.
So far this year, SSGA has launched three ESG dividend ETFs, reindexed its US high yield corporate bond ETF to an ESG benchmark and shifted its European ESG equity product to a socially responsible investing (SRI) index.
Southern Europe has been a key area of expansion for ETF issuers this year with a number of firms expanding their sales teams.
This includes HSBC Asset Management which appointed Alex Merla as head of wholesale for southern Europe in August while KraneShares appointed Paolo Iurcotta to head-up sales in Italy and HANetf hired Annacarla Dellepiane as Italian sales head in September.
