Northern Trust has made its long-anticipated move into the ETF marketplace, and it is attacking the space with vigor.

The Chicago-based banking giant has filed a prospectus for 27 new ETFs offering focused exposure to a wide range of international and global markets. The filing includes 20 country-specific funds, four international REIT funds and three global funds.

The funds will be branded as "NETS." There is no word yet on listing sites or expense ratios.

There are a number of gems in the filing, but by far the most exciting is the NETS Dow Jones Wilshire Global Total Market ETF. This fund, along with the complementary NETS FTSE CNBC Global 300 ETF, will be the first truly global ETFs, combining U.S., international developed and emerging markets exposure into a single ETF.

Selecting the Dow Jones Wilshire Global Total Market Index as the underlying index is a bold choice by Northern Trust. It is the most complete global index, covering 58 countries and more than 98% of global market capitalization. At a time when most ETF providers are chopping the market into tinier and tinier slices, this is the ultimate reverse approach: all the world's stocks in one ETF. It could form the basis of many a portfolio.

The downside is that it'll undoubtedly be a headache to manage, and Northern Trust will have to use some serious optimization techniques to do so effectively. The CNBC index offers a more liquid, mega-cap benchmark as an alternative.

Big-Name-Focused Indexes

Beyond the global funds, the filing is distinguished by picking up some of the most popular local indexes around the world. It's an interesting approach for Northern Trust, which is looking to hack its way into an already established market.

For instance, there is already an ETF tied to the French market: the iShares MSCI France Index ETF (AMEX: EWQ) has been on the market since 1996 and has over $500 million in assets. But in France, investors don't pay attention to the MSCI France index. In France, they pay attention to the CAC 40. Similarly, the FTSE 100 is popular in the U.K., and the Hang Seng is the most popular index in Hong Kong.

By capturing these locally popular indexes, Northern Trust may be able to cobble out some space in a market that is already crowded with players.

A few of the country funds are unique as well, and will likely launch into significant demand. The China and Hong Kong funds are the first to track the popular Hang Seng indexes, while the Russia, Greece, Israel and Portugal ETFs will be the first covering those domestic markets. (Van Eck offers a Russian ETF under its Market Vectors brand, but that fund holds American Depository Receipts.)

As for the real estate funds, iShares has similar funds under development, and the first-to-market may be the big winner in this space.

Altogether, this filing heralds the arrival of a major new player on the ETF scene. Let the competition begin.

The prospectus is available here.