Demand is Growing for Fixed-Income ETFs
February 01, 2012
• Steve Rosenbush
Given stagnant equity returns and a reduced appetite for risk, demand for exchange-traded funds is shifting into a new area: fixed income.
The $1.5 trillion global market for ETFs is still dominated by equity products in North America, which account for about $1 trillion in assets under management. The lion’s share of the growth, however, is happening in fixed income, according to Noel Archard, global head of product development and management for iShares, the ETF family managed by Blackrock. “ETFs are pushing into different classes of fixed income. In a low-rate environment, ETFs are useful because they bring efficiency. We have more and more requests for fixed-income ETFs. It was a big trend last year, and we expect it will continue this year,” Archer said.....