Deutsche Börse is marking the 15th anniversary of the launch of its Xetra XTF segment, the first European exchange traded fund trading venue.
Xetra has since established itself as Europe’s leading trading venue for ETFs. The segment has seen impressive growth in the past 15 years to today's 1,057 listed ETFs from 19 providers, fund assets under management of EUR 331.6 billion and an average monthly trading volume of EUR 17 billion in 2015. ETFs on Xetra also set a new turnover record for Q1 of EUR 51.1 billion in the first three months of this year.
“ETFs are among the most successful financial instruments of the past two decades. They are highly transparent and have a low cost structure. Retail investors are therefore increasingly opting for ETFs. Xetra provides them – and institutional investors – with access to the largest product range in Europe and to highly liquid trading on the most favourable terms,” says Dr Martin Reck, Managing Director Cash Market at Deutsche Börse AG.
The first two ETFs on Xetra were based on the European EURO STOXX 50 and STOXX Europe 50 equity indices. These days, ETFs enable investors to make a broadly diversified investment in a region, sector or asset class, and to employ diverging strategies by combining several ETFs.
In Europe, some 33 per cent of ETF trading volume goes through Xetra, and in Germany around 92 perc ent. The iShares Core DAX UCITS ETF achieved the highest trading volume in the XTF segment in 2014, with an average monthly turnover of EUR 1.2 billion. The bid-ask spread for the 20 most liquid equity ETFs on Xetra averaged only six basis points in 2014.
