ETFs Taking Off in England

The number of exchange-traded funds traded on the London Stock Exchange has doubled this year to 100, up from 46 at the end of 2006, Fund Strategy reports.

One of the reasons is that Britain eliminated stamp duty charges on funds run by offshore providers in March.

“The U.K. is playing catch-up,” said Dan Draper, head of U.K., Ireland and Nordic ETFs at Lyxor Asset Management, which offers more than 20 ETFs in England. “London has great potential as a global ETF center.”

Barclays was the first to list an ETF in England, the iShares FTSE 100, which began trading in 2000. It now funds more than 50 iShares on the LSE. Other major players are Deutsche Bank, with 15 ETFs, and Invesco PowerShares, with eight.

As of the end of September, European ETFs has a total of $567 billion in assets under management and U.S. ETFs had $540 billion.

Within the next four years, Morgan Stanley predicts the global ETF market will reach $2 trillion.

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