Reception area for BlackRock's Philadelphia offices at the Cira Center. Courtesy of MGZA

New York, USA - December 17, 2010

Assets in U.S.-listed exchange traded funds (ETFs) and exchange traded products (ETPs) broke through the $1 trillion milestone – reaching $1.027 trillion -- for the first time on 16 December 2010, according to BlackRock’s Global ETF Research and Implementation Strategy Team.

As of 16 December 2010, in the U.S., there were 894 ETFs with assets of $887.2 billion from 28 providers on two exchanges.
At the end of December 2009 the U.S. ETF industry had 772 ETFs, assets of $705.5 billion, from 29 providers on two exchanges.
Year to date, 171 new ETFs have been launched in the U.S. with another 828 new ETFs in the pipeline, while 49 ETFs were delisted.

Additionally, as of 16 December 2010, there were 185 ETPs listed in the U.S. with assets of $115.5 billion, from 20 providers on one exchange.
At the end of December 2009, there were 142 ETPs with assets of $88.1 billion from 17 providers on one exchange.

An employee walks out of Blackrock's headquarters in midtown Manhattan, New York, the United States. Source: Xinhua

ETFs are index based open-ended funds that can be bought and sold like ordinary shares on a stock exchange.
They have become popular and widely used investment vehicles to facilitate many investment and diversification strategies — from short-term tactical applications to longer-term strategic applications.
The ETP industry includes other product structures such as trusts, partnerships, commodity pools and notes.


Capturing Benchmark Performance


Growth in the U.S. market for ETFs and ETPs reflects expansion in the use of the vehicle through retail channels, as well as their continuing popularity among institutional investors of all kinds, said Deborah Fuhr, Global Head of ETF Research and Implementation Strategy at BlackRock.

Deborah Fuhr, Global Head of ETF Research and Implementation Strategy at BlackRock. Courtesy of BlackRock

“Increasingly both retail and institutional investors are building global, multi-asset portfolios that are designed to capture the performance of key ‘benchmarks’ for attractive market sectors – an application for which ETFs and ETPs are particularly well suited,” Ms. Fuhr said.

“ETF providers are expanding their product ranges into more specialized areas to cater to the growing number of professional and retail investors using ETFs as advanced portfolio construction tools,” she said.
“The increasing availability of these highly-specialized ETFs and ETPs across the full spectrum of equities, fixed-income and alternative investments means that investors can use these vehicles to instantly deploy capital to take advantage of new investment opportunities – with complete transparency into the underlying investments as well as low cost.”

“Cost features make ETFs and ETPs among the most ‘democratic’ of investments, as a product’s pricing is consistent regardless of the type of investor or level of assets invested,” she said.


Growing Interest in North American Equity, and Emerging Markets


Net new asset flows for U.S.-listed ETFs for 2010 to date provide evidence of growing interest in both developed and emerging markets equity ETFs/ETPs, with these flows greater this year than in 2009, Ms. Fuhr said.
At the same time, net new asset flows indicate less focus on fixed income and commodities.

Through November, net new flows into North American equity ETFs/ETPs have totaled $21 billion, compared with just $2 billion in 2009.
Over the same time period this year, flows into emerging markets equity ETFs/ETPs overall have totaled $29 billion, compared with $27 billion last year.

Of this total, flows into “multi-region” emerging markets products have totaled $26 billion year to date, compared with $16.7 billion last year.

Flows into fixed income products have totaled $31.2 billion, compared with $44.8 billion last year, and flows into commodity products have totaled $11.4 billion, compared with $32.6 billion last year.

Through November, the ETF average daily trading volume in U.S. dollars has increased by 26 percent, to US $57.7 billion.
ETF trading volume in November accounted for 24.1% of all United States equity turnover.


An Educational Need Market-Wide


Growth in the utilization of ETFs and ETPs – as well as the expanding diversity of the product set – is leading to greater urgency of a market wide educational need, Ms. Fuhr said.
“Investors need to understand that under the overall ETF/ETP umbrella, many different product structures, underlying investments (securities, futures, physical commodities, etc.), regulatory regimes and tax treatments are represented,” she said.
“Within the ‘gold’ category, for example, an investor can find funds and notes based on physical gold, gold futures, gold mining stocks – each with quite different performance, regulatory and tax implications.

“As market growth and product innovation proceeds, it will become only more essential for investors of all kinds to deeply understand the full range of ETF and ETP structures, benchmarks, underlying features and applications, if they are to most effectively realize all the many potential benefits of the ETF/ETP approach,” she said.


About BlackRock


BlackRock is a leader in investment management, risk management and advisory services for institutional and retail clients worldwide.
At September 30, 2010, BlackRock’s AUM was $3.446 trillion.

BlackRock offers products that span the risk spectrum to meet clients’ needs, including active, enhanced and index strategies across markets and asset classes.
Products are offered in a variety of structures including separate accounts, mutual funds, iShares (exchange traded funds), and other pooled investment vehicles.

BlackRock also offers risk management, advisory and enterprise investment system services to a broad base of institutional investors through BlackRock Solutions.

Headquartered in New York City, as of September 30, 2010, the firm has approximately 8,900 employees in 24 countries and a major presence in key global markets, including North and South America, Europe, Asia, Australia and the Middle East and Africa.

For additional information, please visit the Company's website at

www.blackrock.com  


About BlackRock Global ETF Research and Implementation Strategy


BlackRock’s Global ETF Research and Implementation Strategy Team is regarded as the industry’s pre-eminent source of data, analysis and perspective on the ETF/ETP marketplace worldwide.

While the team’s focus is ETFs/ETPs, the team operates independently from the iShares business and provides an independent source of marketplace research and advice to clients on the implementation of asset allocation strategies using ETFs and ETPs.

Led by Deborah Fuhr, Managing Director, the team produces the “'ETF Landscape” reports, a comprehensive series of weekly, monthly, and quarterly ETF market commentaries as well as handbooks covering all ETFs and ETPs from all 158 providers (as of September 30, 2010).

The scope of research is unequalled industry-wide, covering the world as well as all major regional markets and ETF genres, with a focus on North America, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and Japan.

The research produced is a key source of expertise and comment for representatives of global exchanges, regulatory bodies and the financial media.

Through the team’s timely and comprehensive research and market insight, BlackRock demonstrates its dedication to the industry by building greater market understanding of the dynamic ETF vehicle and supporting the efforts of all market participants to realize optimal investment value from the ETF approach.


Media Contacts:

Arielle Densen
Tiller, LLC
312-255-8090
adensen@tillerllc.com

Jim Marren
Tiller, LLC
212-358-8515
jmarren@tillerllc.com


ETF Research Contact:

Deborah Fuhr
Global Head of ETF Research & Implementation Strategy
Office : +44-20-7668-4276
Mobile : +44 777 5823 111
deborah.fuhr@blackrock.com


SOURCE:

http://www2.blackrock.com/global/home/index.htm  

http://www2.blackrock.com/global/home/News/PressReleases/index.htm  


History


BlackRock's road to success and growth in asset management

BlackRock's road to success and growth in asset management. Assets Under Management ($ Billions) Courtesy of BlackRock

Global Executive Committee


Laurence D. Fink
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Robert S. Kapito
President

Blake Grossman
Vice Chairman

Susan L. Wagner
Vice Chairman

Kendrick R. Wilson III
Vice Chairman

Rohit Bhagat
Senior Managing Director - Chairman of Asia Pacific

James J. Charrington
Senior Managing Director - Chairman of Europe, Middle East & Africa

Robert P. Connolly
Senior Managing Director - General Counsel

Robert W. Fairbairn
Senior Managing Director - Head of Global Client Group

Bennett W. Golub, Ph.D.
Senior Managing Director - Chief Risk Officer

Charles S. Hallac
Senior Managing Director - Chief Operating Officer

J. Richard Kushel
Senior Managing Director - Head of Portfolio Management

Ann Marie Petach
Senior Managing Director - Chief Financial Officer

Jeffrey A. Smith, Ph.D.
Senior Managing Director - Head of Human Resources


SOURCE:

http://www2.blackrock.com/global/home/index.htm  



Deborah Fuhr

Managing Director, Global Head of ETF Research and Implementation Strategy, BlackRock (London)

Deborah Fuhr Courtesy of Workplace Savings NZ

Under Ms Fuhr's guidance, BlackRock's Global ETF Research and Implementation Strategy team is responsible for advising clients on the implementation of asset allocation strategies using Exchange Trading Funds (ETFs), producing analysis and guidebooks on the global ETF industry.
In addition, the team will provide comprehensive research reports to BlackRock's wide range of institutional and intermediary-based clients concerning developing asset allocation strategies using ETFs.

Ms Fuhr is based in BlackRock's London office. However, she spends a significant portion of her time working with BlackRock's extensive client base in Europe and North America, as well as in BlackRock's rapidly developing markets such as Australasia, Latin America and the Middle East.

Prior to joining BlackRock in September 2008 Ms Fuhr spent the past 11 years working at Morgan Stanley.
She was a Managing Director and head of the Investment Strategies Group at Morgan Stanley based in London.
The unit advised institutional investors globally and wrote on the implementation and strategy on the use of Delta products - including Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) on equity, fixed income and commodity indices globally, OPALS (Optimised Portfolios As Listed Securities), certificates, swaps, futures, out-performance trades, securities lending and yield enhancement trades.

The group published four comprehensive quarterly reports:

1) ETF Global Industry Review,

2) ETF short interest,

3) ETF options and futures and

4) ETF Global Tracking Monitor and advised clients on the implementation of asset allocation with Delta 1 products.

For the past four years, the group has been ranked first for Exchange Traded Fund Research by investors in Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas in a global survey conducted by ExchangeTradedFunds.com.

For the past three years, Deborah has in the same survey won the award for the Greatest Overall Contribution to the development of the Global ETF industry. In 2007, 2008 and 2009, Ms Fuhr was named as one of the Top 100 women in Finance, a distinguished list of the most influential women in European Finance, by Financial News.

She is on the International Advisory Committee (IAC) Egyptian Stock Exchange and on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Indexes.

She has an MBA from the JL Kellogg Graduate School of Management, Northwestern University, and Bachelor of Science from the University of Connecticut.


SOURCE:

http://www.workplacesavings.org.nz/speaker-biography-deborah-fuhr/  



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