State Street Global Advisors (SSgA) today marked the twentieth anniversary of their SPDR ETF business. The launch of the first US-listed SPDR ETF, the now somewhat legendary SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY), in 1993 was a ground-breaking innovation that improved access to the market for investors.
Launched with just $6.5 million in assets, SPY is now the world’s largest ETF with more than $123 billion in assets under management.
It is also the most traded ETF, with an average daily trading volume of 144 million shares, equivalent to approximately $21.6 billion notional value.
James Ross, senior managing director and global head of SPDR Exchange Traded Funds at SSgA, said: “It’s an honour to have been a member of the team that introduced the first ETF. It’s also tremendously rewarding to see this ETF recognised as one of the most investor-friendly innovations of our time and a major catalyst for the growth of the ETF industry.”
Ross added: “The industry now includes more than 5,000 funds with nearly $2 trillion in assets globally. Our research shows that the prospects for the ETF industry remain positive, and we expect to see growth across all geographical markets over the next few years.”
As part of the 20 year anniversary, SPDR ETFs conducted research with 260 European corporate pension professionals and 41 active UK fund managers to ascertain their views on the ETF market. The results reveal strong optimism in the European ETF market, and exciting prospects for future growth.
Scott Ebner, global head of ETF product development at SSgA, commented: “Despite strong growth in the ETF business globally over the past 20 years, the European ETF business remains relatively small compared with the wider mutual funds and US ETF businesses. However, there is a positive outlook for ETFs across Europe with our recent survey finding that 46% of European investors expect their usage of ETFs to increase over the next five years.”