IW 30: How ETFs became 'a synonym for modernity'

A ‘magic bullet’

Three decades ago, the term 'ETF' did not garner much attention in the investment world.

ETFs were originally launched in Canada in 1990, some years before Investment Week, which is now celebrating its 30th anniversary. Deep Dive: Questions raised over equal-weighted ETFs' efficiency They were pitched as a way to enable investors to access passive index funds, but struggled to gain popularity until more than a decade later, after expanding into more asset classes and when the market entered a decade long bull run.  Benoit Sorel, Amundi global head of ETF, indexing and smart beta, said, until ten years ago, ETFs were "mostly a tool used by fund of fund managers". "It...