National Bank Investments (NBI) has launched four exchange-traded funds. The ETFs began trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange Feb. 8.

According to the publication, Canadian ETF Flows published in February by National Bank Financial Markets, NBI has become the 35^th supplier of ETFs to enter the Canadian market. In addition to the four new products from NBI, 20 other new ETFs have been launched in the Canadian market since the beginning of the year.

The new ETFs from National Bank Investments are: NBI Global Real Assets Income ETF (TSX: NREA), NBI Active Canadian Preferred Shares ETF (TSX: NPRF); NBI Canadian Family Business ETF (TSX: NFAM); NBI Liquid Alternatives ETF (TSX: NALT).

Active management

In its offering, NBI puts the focus on active management. This is a growing trend in the market, particularly among fixed income and multi-asset ETFs.

“We are excited to continue the expansion of NBI’s solutions, providing investors with innovative portfolio and risk diversification opportunities,” said Annamaria Testani, Vice-President, National Sales at National Bank Investments. “When markets are as complex as ever, staying invested is key. We believe our first ETFs provide a compelling way to gain non-traditional active and alternative niche exposure and diversify portfolio risk.”

Among these niches, the NBI Global Real Assets Income ETF invests in companies in industry sectors associated with real assets, such as real estate, infrastructure, or natural resources. The ETF hedges against inflation. The NBI Active Canadian Preferred Shares ETF aims to generate tax-efficient dividend income. The NBI Canadian Family Business ETF aims to replicate the performance of an index of family owned companies. These three ETFs invest in securities of other mutual funds.

Alternative ETF

The NBI Liquid Alternatives ETF’s investment objective is to provide a positive return while maintaining low correlation to, and lower volatility than, the return of the global equity markets, says NBI. It invests primarily in long and short positions on financial derivatives that provide exposure to different major global asset classes, such as government bonds, currencies, equities or commodities.