Dutch bank ABN AMRO entered the exchange traded fund (ETF) business this summer with the listing on Deutsche Börse of its Market Access Jim Rogers International Commodity Index (RICI) Fund. It will not be the last asset manager to enter the market, but new issuers are the least measure of ETFs’ extraordinary growth. First-time users are multiplying and old hands are increasing their exposure. As assets under management (and this is not hyperbole) soar, both numbers and types of funds are proliferating.
ABN AMRO has plans for a series of Market Access products, offering exposure to property, emerging markets (such as Brazil and India) and more commodities, including RICI-based agricultural and base metals funds. It also intends to roll them out across European stock exchanges, starting with SWX and Borsa Italia. In doing so, the bank reflects some of the current themes in the ETF industry.
