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From Sagar Chakraverty, Opalesque Asia:

BlackRock, a NY-based global investment management firm, announced on 13-Jan that Global Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs)' assets soared beyond the $1tln mark at the end of Dec-09 which was 45.2% above the 2008 figure of $710.9bn, in its 'ETF Landscape year-end 2009 review' report issued yesterday.

"The challenging market conditions of 2008 caused a significant shift in investors' risk appetite in their evaluation of counterparty risk and their desire for liquidity...during 2009, many investors found that ETFs met their desire for greater transparency," said Deborah Fuhr, global head of ETF research & implementation strategy at BlackRock.

She also said that there are no signs that investor's interest in ETFs is fading as they find ETFs are products that work well in every market environment.

US, Europe ETF market The US continued to lead in the ETFs, with assets totaling $706bn at the end of 2009, up 42% from 2008. The EU too showed greater momentum, with assets rising nearly 57% to $223.5bn over the year.

In the US, fee-based advisers (paid by the consumer) use ETFs more than commission-based advisers (paid by the product provider). In the UK, the use of ETFs among independent financial advisors (IFAs) is very limited as they are usually multi-tied (those selling products from a range of providers) or tied (selling products of one provider) and ETFs are not currently include......................

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