In the past 20 months the market in fixed income ETFs has seen 250 per cent growth in Europe, as assets under management climbed from €9 billion ($11.6 billion) in June 2007 to €31.7 billion at the end of last month, according to Deutsche Bank and Bloomberg. The bank says its db x-trackers platform accounted for 44 per cent of this growth, raising €10 billion.

Money market ETFs have also enjoyed phenomenal growth since their introduction in Europe by db x-trackers in June 2007 with the Deutsche Bank European overnight index average ETF. The EONIA ETF has accumulated more than €6 billion assets under management, which represents more than 20 per cent of the European fixed income ETF market.

 “db x-trackers have been instrumental in the innovation and growth of the fixed income ETF market in Europe,” says Marco Montanari, head of fixed income ETF structuring at db x-trackers. “Since June 2007 more than three quarters of our fixed income ETFs assets under management can be directly attributed to our ‘first to market’ products including EONIA, our range of short bond and credit default swap products and our inflation products. 

The market has responded positively to innovations from db x-trackers and we aim to continue to launch new and relevant products in this space,” he added.

 “The success of the money market ETF range has been driven in particular by institutional clients seeking the advantages that these products offer them, namely transparency, flexibility, low costs and a tactical tool box that they can easily access,” Mr Montanari said.“At present the majority of the db x-tracker fixed income ETF range is listed on Frankfurt Xetra, and Borsa Italiana, however we have plans to launch a dedicated range of fixed income ETFs for the UK market later this year,” said Thorsten Michalik, head of db x-trackers. 

 Despite the growth of assets under management, fixed income ETFs still account for just 30 per cent of the total ETF market in Europe compared to a 48 per cent share of the mutual fund market, suggesting that there is both room and appetite for further growth in this sector.

 db x-trackers offers more than 100 ETFs across asset classes including equity, fixed income, credit, money markets, currencies and commodities. The platform's ETFs are listed on six different exchanges across Europe and Asia and are supported by multiple market makers. db x-trackers ETFs are domiciled in Luxembourg and comply with UCITS III regulations.

 With more than € 6 billion assets under management, the db x-trackers EONIA ETF is the single largest ETF in Europe.