Oct 31 (Reuters) - BlackRock Inc. ( BLK ) on Wednesday

filed an application with the U.S. Securities & Exchange

Commission seeking approval to create exchange-traded fund

classes for its mutual funds.

The asset management giant is the latest and by far the

largest among more than 30 money managers that have made similar

requests since a patent on the ETF share class structure held by

Vanguard expired in May 2023.

The SEC does not have a deadline to rule on those

applications, and the agency so far has only allowed Vanguard to

offer both exchange-traded shares and traditional units within

the same mutual fund.

Cboe Global Markets ( CBOE ) is hoping to push the SEC into

ruling on the question, by seeking approval for a rule change

that would permit it to list and trade ETF share classes.

Regulators must respond to such rule-change requests within 240

days, which would fall toward the end of 2024.

Dimensional Fund Advisors, one of the first funds to file

for permission to offer its existing mutual funds in an ETF

format last year, said it has so far received letters of support

from several hundred financial advisers who collectively manage

$3 trillion in investor assets.