iShares, the exchange-traded funds platform of BlackRock, has launched an iShares Global Corporate Bond ETF which it says is the first in Europe to offer investors diversified exposure to global corporate bonds.

The new fund aims to track the Barclays Global Aggregate Corporate Bond Index, a broad-based measure of global investment-grade, fixed-rate corporate debt markets, by trading across more than 7,000 corporate bonds mainly from the US (48 per cent), Europe (23 per cent) and Asia-Pacific (10 per cent) and across 15 currencies. Rather than holding all bonds simultaneously, it will be sampled, with around 270 bonds at launch increasing to a typical holding of around 500 bonds.

The fund is physically-backed, holding the underlying bonds and securities, with a total expense ratio of 20 basis points, or 0.2 per cent. On top of potential capital gains, the fund pays a dividend to investors twice a year.

According to BlackRock’s ETP Landscape research, flows into fixed income ETFs have almost doubled in 2012, with $50.8 billion of net new assets recorded in the first eight months compared with $28.5 billion in the same period in 2011.