Amundi ETF | Best ETF Distributor | Best Commodity ETF Issuer ($100m+) | Best ESG Fixed Income ETF Issuer ($1bn+) | Best European Equity ETF Issuer ($5bn+)
Amundi swept the board with awards this year but Arnaud Llinas, Head of ETF, Indexing & Smart Beta, is particularly interested that his firm won Best ETF Distributor as they have been focusing on expanding their distribution partnerships across Europe over the past year.
“We think that retail development will be among the main drivers of the business growth in years to come,” Llinas says. “We have invested in working in partnership with distributors across Europe and our ETFs are available in the main digital platforms such as FinecoBank in Italy; ING Direct in Germany, and Bourse Direct in France.”
More distributors of Amundi ETFs implies more appetite for the products and Llinas says: “Over the last 10 years the ETF market has grown significantly in net figures, between 10 and 12 per cent in Europe year on year and last year was an extraordinary year with the war in Ukraine and rising interest rates, but we have still seen 6 per cent growth in European ETFs. Nothing seems likely to hurt the ETFs’ growth.”
Historically, Llinas notes that the ETF market has been driven by asset managers using ETFs to build their portfolio and institutional investors such as insurance companies and pension funds.
“What we see here is something new with the growth of the on-line distribution which is another engine of growth and comes along the digitalisation of savings, with retail clients increasingly using ETFs.”
The acquisition of Lyxor by Amundi was completed one year ago and these awards reflect the united businesses.
The win for Best Commodity ETF issuer makes sense against the backdrop of the Amundi Bloomberg Equal-Weight Commodity ex-Agriculture UCITS ETF (CRB), which was launched in 2006, under the Lyxor brand, and now has EUR2 billion in assets. This fund complies with UCITS diversification rules and therefore provides investors with a diversified commodity exposure.
ESG is another important win for Amundi. Responsible investing has been a key area of growth for them and the firm founding pillar. Last year saw the firm raise EUR6 billion for its ESG ETFs on a net basis which included many clients switching from non-ESG to ESG ETFs.
“The number of ESG ETFs in our range went from 22 per cent at the end of 2021 to 27 per cent at the end of 2022 and we want to continue this with the objective of reaching 40 per cent by 2025, so it’s an ongoing effort in order to support our clients in their ESG transition,” Llinas says.
The final award Amundi won is for European equities which is, as Llinas says: “Logical and in line with our identity as a leading European player. With the longest track record since we launched our first ETFs in 2001. We also have one of the largest European equity range, with or without an ESG focus.”
A final note from Llinas is that fixed income ETFs, traditionally 20 per cent of the European ETF industry against 80 per cent in equities, have seen something of a renaissance, with figures coming to 60/40. “Current rates are very appealing for our clients with less volatility than equity so we are spending a lot of time bringing education and insight to our clients”, Llinas says.
