ETFs: investors’ flexible friends

Exchange-traded funds have proliferated in Europe, offering institutional investors enormous investment choice and liquidity at a low cost. We find out how and why these products are attracting the interest of a diverse range of investors and look at the future potential of the industry. Dawn Cowie reports

dancer-flexibility
ETF's flexibility is part of their attraction for investors

Ten years after the introduction of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in Europe and few would have predicted that 85–90% of the users of these passively managed, index-tracking funds would be institutional, not retail investors. Or, even more surprisingly, that hedge funds would have been the fastest-growing group of global users over this period. The compound annual growth rate for this group of active investors was 42.4% over the 11 years to the end of 2008, according to a recent research report by

Only users who have a paid subscription or are part of a corporate subscription are able to print or copy content.

To access these options, along with all other subscription benefits, please contact info@risk.net or view our subscription options here: http://subscriptions.risk.net/subscribe

You are currently unable to copy this content. Please contact info@risk.net to find out more.

Sorry, our subscription options are not loading right now

Please try again later. Get in touch with our customer services team if this issue persists.

New to Risk.net? View our subscription options

You need to sign in to use this feature. If you don’t have a Risk.net account, please register for a trial.

Sign in
You are currently on corporate access.

To use this feature you will need an individual account. If you have one already please sign in.

Sign in.

Alternatively you can request an individual account here