According to the latest Industry Review from Barclays Global Investors (BGI), European ETF assets totalled US$126 billion at the end of October, invested in 587 funds. Data for the first nine months of 2008 showed net cash inflows into ETFs of $54 billion, compared with an outflow of $302 billion from mutual funds.

In US dollar terms and to end-October, European ETF assets under management have fallen by 2% this year, much less than the 47% decline of the MSCI Europe index.

One hundred and seventy-two new ETFs have been launched so far in 2008, with another 42 planned for launch before year-end.

Fixed-income ETFs remain the most popular asset class for European ETF investors, with 27% of all assets, followed by country equity index ETFs, with 19% of the total.

iShares remains the largest European ETF product provider, with 38% of the total assets; followed by Lyxor, with 25%; and db x-trackers, with 15%.