BATS offers $400,000 a year to ETF providers to boost its platform
BATS Global Markets has revealed plans to launch the BATS ETF Marketplace, which will pay ETF providers as much as $400,000 a year to list on the platform, dependent upon﻿ average daily volume. BATS is the top US exchange for ETF trading volume, with BlackRock's iShares accounting for 21 of the 31 BATS-listed ETFs.  This comes just days after TD Ameritrade said that is was considering charging issuers of ETFs to be part of its expansive commission-free ETF platform. TD Ameritrade offers over 100 ETFs to advisors and retail clients commission-free including funds managed by Vanguard and Wisdom Tree. Schwab's ETF OneSource, with over 200 ETFs, also offers commission-free trading in ETFs.

TD Ameritrade (NasdaqGS: AMTD), one of the largest online brokerage firms, is considering charging issuers of exchange traded funds to be part of the firm’s expansive commission-free ETF platform.

With the exchange traded funds industry continue to boom, various brokerage houses are racing to get in on the action.

A popular tactic for capturing ETF assets from registered investment advisors, financial planners and retail investors has been to offer menus of ETFs on a commission-free basis. Not only have brokers such as Charles Schwab (SCHW), Fidelity and TD Ameritrade (AMTD) offered select ETFs to clients sans commissions, the firms have routinely boosted the number of ETFs clients can access without commissions.

“TD Ameritrade Inc. is weighing major changes to its commission-free ETF platform, including the possibility of levying fees on asset managers, an executive for the investment platform said Friday,” reports Trevor Hunnicutt for InvestmentNews.

Matthew Judge, director of wealth management solutions for TD Ameritrade Institutional, made the comments to InvestmentNews at the ETF Trends ETF Boot Camp in New York last week.