Deutsche Bank’s exchange traded fund platform, db x-trackers, is planning to capitalise on the growing demand for ETFs by launching 30 new products by the end of this year.

There has been a substantial increase in assets under management for ETFs in recent years and the financial crisis has further heightened investors’ appreciation of their transparency, liquidity and cost-efficiency: listed and traded like individual stocks, ETFs track indices of equities, bonds, commodities and other asset classes, giving investors exposure to sectors without having to own the underlying physical assets.

According to db x-trackers, the European ETF industry has had a particularly good start to 2009, seeing inflows of €10 billion ($14 billion) in the first six months of the year. In this period db x-trackers had inflows of €2.73 billion, bringing its assets under management to around €21 billion.

Speaking at a press briefing in Frankfurt, Thorsten Michalik, head of db x-trackers, said that the firm will have 150 ETFs on offer by the end of this year, rising to 200 in 2010.

Just this week db x-trackers launched an ETF which tracks the S&P US Carbon Efficient Index on the London Stock Exchange. The index, which measures the performance of large cap US companies with relatively low carbon emissions, is designed to closely track the return of the original S&P 500.

Deutsche Bank is not alone in expanding its ETF offering to meet increased demand; last week Credit Suisse added 16 new funds on a variety of global equity and bond indices to Credit Suisse Xmtch, its Swiss ETF range.