Source, a consortium of global banks providing exchange-traded products, is listing 15 exchange traded commodities on the SIX exchange in Switzerland.

The roll-out is part of a trend for financial firms to tap perceived investor hunger for easy-access commodity products that are seen to benefit from emerging market growth, supply bottlenecks and a desire to hold assets which can be a hedge against inflation. Private banks such as Sarasin and Pictet have launched agriculture-linked funds in recent years, for example.

The ETCs will track commodities including corn, crude oil, copper,  natural gas, industrial metals, precious metals, soybeans, sugar, wheat and physical gold, Source said.

In the case of gold, the yellow metal is close to a record high of around $1,390 per ounce in the futures market (data: Bloomberg); front-month NYMEX crude oil futures trade around $86.36 per barrel. Other commodities, such as wheat, have risen in recent weeks.

Some investors and commentators, such as Jim Rogers, author of books such as Investment Biker and also a stern critic of the Federal Reserve’s quantitative easing monetary policy, have argued there is a long term, secular trend pushing up commodities. In particular, growth in emerging market economies is helping to drive demand, he says.

Source is a consortium of the following firms and banks: Band of America Merrill Lynch, Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Nomura, Nyenburgh, Baader Bank, Banca IMI, BNP, Commerzbank, DekaBank, Euroinvest, Exane, Flow Traders, HSBC, IMC, Knight, LaBranche, Newedge, Optiver, RBS, SG Securities and UniCredit.

“Listing our market leading ETCs on SIX is an important step in offering Swiss investors locally-traded products and all of our investors the ability to trade these products in US dollars. We have raised $850 million in ETCs, so our simple message – transparency, unparalleled asset quality, and efficient delivery of commodity exposure – is clearly resonating with the European institutional investment community.  Source T-ETCs’ superior structure is a market leading solution in addressing counterparty risk,” said Ted Hood, chief executive of Source.

All Source ETCs will trade in US dollars on SIX, and the annual fixed fee for all T-ETCs is 0.49 per cent per annum, while the Source Physical Gold P-ETC (SGLD) is significantly less expensive than competing physical gold products at 0.29 per cent p.a, the firm said.