| The SPDR SSGA Apollo IG Public & Private Credit ETF (ticker PRIV) began trading this week, to the surprise of many in the $11 trillion industry that regulators would allow such a novel fund to launch. Turns out, the Securities and Exchange Commission isn't exactly thrilled. The agency sent a letter to both firms on Thursday detailed its three major concerns: the fund's name (the staff is concerned that it's "misleading"), liquidity and its ability to comply with valuation rules. It's not surprising that the SEC is concerned about those things — those are questions that many ETF experts and enthusiasts have been asking for months. It is surprising to see the SEC so strongly voice all these objections after the fact. But even that isn't without precedent. Consider the experience with leveraged single-stock ETFs, which debuted in July 2022. Days before the first product launched, Commissioner Caroline Crenshaw called for the agency to adopt new rules that would address potential risks. Meanwhile, then-SEC Chair Gary Gensler said the products "present particular risk" in a press call. A similar story unfolded in 2021, when two ETFs offering leveraged strategies tied to the Cboe Volatility Index, or VIX, began trading even as Gensler announced the regulator was studying the risks of such complex products. However, this letter reads a bit more harshly. As Apollo does not have an obligation to sell any debt to the fund and it's not an adviser or sponsor to it, it's "misleading" to have the ETF named after the credit giant, the regulator said. A State Street representative told Bloomberg reporters that they have received the SEC's inquiry and will respond, but declined to comment further. A spokesperson for Apollo said "we saw a significant volume of shares trade yesterday and remain confident in the value the convergence of public and private markets can offer to investors." So what does the SEC's letter ultimately mean for trading? Potentially nothing immediately. The proverbial genie is out of the bottle — PRIV is alive and trading, and attracted a modest $1.2 million of inflows in its first day on Wall Street, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. "While the letter is extremely interesting for those of us in the ETF industry, I do not anticipate that it will impact trading in the coming days as nothing in the letter suggests that the SEC is considering shutting down the fund," Amrita Nandakumar, president of ETF sub-adviser Vident Asset Management, told Bloomberg's Emily Graffeo. | 
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