Exchange traded funds set for explosive growth in Asia

Tokyo

EXCHANGE Traded Funds or ETFs are set for explosive growth among Asian investors as a means of channelling the region's savings and as the region's stock exchanges gear up to promote this relatively new vehicle, specialists predicted at an international conference in Tokyo on Wednesday

The ETF "revolution" - in marketable securities that track an equity, bond or other index and which trade like common stocks on a stock exchange - is most advanced in Japan among Asian nations because of official backing, but is spreading rapidly elsewhere in the region.