Rieder’s Fed Candidacy Exposes Risk in All-Star ETFs (1)

BlackRock Inc. is facing a rare conundrum: its star manager may soon be poached to head the Federal Reserve, clouding the outlook for the $14 trillion exchange-traded fund industry’s fastest-growing active bond vehicle.

BlackRock executive Rick Rieder has emerged as a finalist on President Donald Trump’s shortlist for Fed chair in a decision that’s expected next week. Rieder is currently the favorite for the nomination on prediction-market platform Polymarket, with 38% odds.

Rick Rieder

Photographer: Jin Lee/Bloomberg

Those job prospects leave a question mark over his smash-hit iShares Flexible Income ETF (ticker BINC), which has amassed more than $16 billion in assets ...