iShares, the exchange traded fund brand of Barclays Global Investors, has launched an education campaign to raise awareness about the rapidly-expanding ETF market, which it expects to surpass $1 trillion in assets in 2009.

ETFs, which are listed and traded like stocks, have become a significant feature of investment markets, enabling individual investors to tap sometimes hard-to-enter markets while also offering institutions such as hedge funds the ability to rapidly shift asset allocation at relatively low cost.

More education about ETF products must be made available to investors in light of the rapid development of the ETF marketplace, iShares said. Its education campaign will involve distribution of literature and information packs about ETFs via the Web.

“The European market is growing at a rapid rate. For investors, a critical question is whether they understand the key differences in the various ETFs being offered, most notably the differences in structure, cost, risk and return,” said Rory Tobin, chief executive of iShares Europe.

“We believe the reason that ETFs have grown in popularity is because of the advantages they offer over other products, such as simplicity, transparency and liquidity,” Mr Tobin said.

iShares said there are five important criteria to consider when evaluating an ETF and ETF product providers: clear understanding of what an ETF holds; client service history; broad product choice, portfolio management and ETF liquidity.

Meanwhile, BGI, which is part of UK-listed banking group Barclays, has appointed Deborah Fuhr as managing director. Ms Fuhr will be the global head of the newly created ETF research and implementation strategy team, starting on 15 September. She joins from Morgan Stanley, where she drove research of the ETF field.