J.P. Morgan, the massive Wall Street firm that until now has steered clear of issuing exchange-traded funds, has changed course and now plans to join a growing number of firms that have moved to launch their own ETFs, according to a pair of new filings at the Securities and Exchange Commission..

J.P. Morgan joins financial firms such as Vanguard, Schwab, Goldman Sachs, T. Rowe Price, Eaton Vance, Legg Mason and Pimco that had little or no involvement with ETFs a year ago. The U.S. ETF industry had $755.85 billion in assets as of the end of last month, compared with $456.31 billion a year earlier, according to data compiled by the National Stock Exchange.

The March 10 filings, covering index-based as well as actively managed ETFs, mark a new strategic direction for a firm that weathered the near-meltdown of the global financial system in the fall of 2008 perhaps better than any other big U.S. financial company. J.P. Morgan has previously been reluctant to launch its own ETFs because it is a large service provider to other ETF companies, providing custody and related services to more than 100 third-party ETFs.

As reported at ETFs For the Long Run, the company’s “exemptive relief” filings lay the groundwork to launch a wide-ranging family of funds. The index-based filing identified two specific ETFs as being first on the list: an intermediate municipal bond ETF and a floating-rate corporate debt ETF. The filing outlining actively managed funds offered no specifics, paving the way for launches of ETFs in equity, fixed income, commodity and other asset classes.

The Wall Street firm currently offers one exchange-traded product: the JP Morgan Alerian MLP exchange-traded note (NYSEArca: AMJ). ETNs are debt-based instruments that trade like ETFs. The U.S. ETN market is also growing rapidly, with assets totaling $9.18 billion at the end of February compared with $4.32 billion a year earlier.

Exemptive relief filings grant the ETF firms exception to sections of the Investment Act of 1940 and are just the first step in the path to launching ETFs. It often takes at least six to 12 months from the date of the initial filing for a company’s first ETF to hit the market.