- Proprietary Irish white label platform offers initiators fast market entry for ETF products
- Luxembourg location adds a wide range of ETF strategies to the service offering
- ETF products – a significant growth market with high potential
Luxembourg, 13 January 2026 – The HAFS Group continues to expand its ETF business in Europe, addressing growing demand for efficient, scalable ETF structures. With the market increasingly shifting from traditional fund structures to ETFs and ETF share classes, the company is currently laying the operational and regulatory foundation for initiators.
One key component of this strategy is the HAFS Group’s Irish white label ETF platform, which gives asset managers access to an internationally recognised market standard. The Group’s collaboration with J.P. Morgan acting as depositary and administrator strengthens the platform’s institutional quality. In this context, ETF structures in Ireland are also managed from Luxembourg.
“This organisational structure allows us to assist German providers looking to invest via Ireland with their decision-making processes in their native language,” explains Lisa Backes, Deputy CEO and Member of the Management Board at HAFS. Referring to the platform’s strategic orientation as a white label solution for initiators, she continues, “Our white label ETF platform makes it possible for asset managers to launch ETFs under their own brand without having to establish complex technical and regulatory ETF structures.”
eNova Active Core EUR Ultra Short Term (ISIN IE000ST59DS4) by Active Core Asset Management GmbH was the first product to be launched under the Irish white label platform. During the process, the fund structure was expanded to include an ETF share class and then converted to an exchange-traded structure. The ETF asset class was first listed on 27 November 2025 on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange (XETRA). The fund invests in short-term sovereign bonds denominated in euro.
The HAFS Group also works to specifically accommodate US-based asset managers looking for structured market access in Europe. The Irish platform acts as an established access point through which investment strategies can be made available to European investors in the form of ETFs – all within a clearly specified framework and under the asset manager’s brand.
The HAFS Group also offers ETF structures focused on providing additional structural flexibility at its Luxembourg location. The two locations in tandem make it possible to efficiently realise a wide range of ETF strategies, from standardised to bespoke. The company collaborated with the NaroIQ technology platform to develop this solution.
The Inyova Impact Investing Active Equity Fund UCITS ETF EUR (ISIN LU3075459852) was launched against this backdrop as an actively managed ETF domiciled in Luxembourg. The product was listed on XETRA on 19 December 2025. The fund pursues a consistent impact investing strategy, investing in an actively selected portfolio of publicly listed companies chosen around clearly defined environmental and social impact criteria. The UCITS structure ensures high regulatory standards, transparency and daily liquidity for investors.
“In addition to our longstanding expertise, what sets the HAFS Group apart is the comprehensive support we provide during product setup. We begin by advising our clients in conceptualising their investment product and continue to support them throughout the entire process, even in challenging market phases,” Lisa Backes explains. “We take this holistic approach in a variety of business areas such as structuring infrastructure funds and ESG consulting.” The HAFS Group is planning to hold roadshows in several major German-speaking cities in 2026 to deepen initiator understanding of ETFs. “Today, the term ETF is widely used across the industry. The underlying structure, however, remains abstract for many product initiators. Our goal is to give initiators that are considering ETFs for the first time a well-founded understanding of the mechanisms involved,” Lisa Backes concludes.