ETFs

ETFs

Tony Raw, managing director, global sales at FTSE, talks to Clare Dickinson about how the indexing business has developed.

FOUR HIDDEN RISKS

SPDR ETFs, the exchange traded funds (ETF) platform of State Street Global Advisors (SSgA), has listed a range of physically-backed equity and fixed income ETFs on the London Stock Exchange.

Regulators have rightly been puzzling over what could go wrong from here. They are spoilt for choice, as they seek to distinguish between the risks that can be well managed, and the risks that might in bad circumstances bring the system down again.

The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has launched a high level review of the potential dangers posed by ETFs, weeks after the FSA and Bank of England expressed their own concerns.

ETF COMPLEXITY

State Street Global Advisors is launching its inaugural UK range of ETFs within the next quarter, as part of plans to launch more than 50 index-tracking funds in the next two years.

Carrying on from last week's debate, Fundsmith founder Terry Smith and SCM Private's Alan Miller continue to fight their corners in the ETF arena

Regulators are comparing ETFs with collateralised debt obligations, but do the two seemingly different products share any common ground? Helen Fowler reports.