Based in London, she works with local and global asset managers interested in the European ETF market and says they face a very different landscape outside of their home market, particularly for US asset managers looking to jump the pond.

“I always describe it [Europe] as an onion with many layers,” she says. “Issuers expanding into Europe need to understand those nuances. One of Europe’s prominent differences is that it has six key ETF markets, not one (like in the US), and they all have regulatory, exchange listing, and investment culture difference that need navigating from an investor perspective.”

“Familiarity with ETFs in Europe is lower but growing particularly with retail investors. The investment culture differs because the economic environment is different,” she says.

People save for retirement, healthcare, and education in ways that reflect the safety nets—or lack of them—in each country and, she says, ETF adoption in Europe reflects those broader cultural and economic differences. “The way Germans invest looks nothing like the way Italians do,” she says. “That’s one of the many things issuers learn when they expand here.”

Changes in the market

Murray spends much of her time helping clients understand these local dynamics but also how longer-term forces like tokenization and AI will reshape the ETF space. The changes may be unfolding steadily on the surface but the drivers—technology, investor behavior, and regulation—are evolving rapidly beneath.

“It’s not a space where there’s ground-breaking news daily or even weekly, so what clients want to know is what to focus on down the road and how to keep up.”

“How do we offset outflows? How do we bring in inflows and new revenue sources? How do we reach a new investor base? Tokenization is another, and obviously AI, these are on clients’ minds along with what their competitors are doing.”

Recent market volatility has played out in product launches as investors respond to the prolonged period of uncertainty. But for Murray, ETFs’ strength is in their resilience. “They perform well in all markets because they’re essentially a wrapper and allow for more flexibility in the face of volatility.”

Championing women in financial careers

Outside of her day-to-day remit, Murray also sees a longer-running shifts in the industry itself regarding representation of women in financial services, particularly in leadership roles. When she first joined BBH in the late nineties, financial services were overwhelmingly male-dominated and she participated in the firm’s first women’s network—founded by a female partner—and later co-led Women in ETFs London, advocating for greater representation in senior roles.

“I believe in a top-down approach. It’s about education, networking, and awareness. But unless people see role models in leadership, it’s hard to implement change,” she says.

Making a difference with market intelligence

At its core, her role is about helping issuers build sustainable, scalable businesses in complex markets. While clients may initially cross her desk for her ETF expertise, they quickly discover the value of the firm’s wider capabilities. “We do a lot of services outside of what people know us for so they may come to us for ETF servicing and then find distribution intelligence and other complementary services that help them scale.”

Ultimately, clients want to feel informed: “They want to understand not just what’s happening today but what’s coming down the line and that market intelligence is where we can really add value.”