According to the ETF research and implementation strategy team at Barclays Global Investors (BGI), European ETF assets fell by 9.6% in the two months to end-February, reflecting equity market declines. 

ETF assets fell by less than the decline in markets; however, the MSCI Europe index returned -20.7%, in US dollar terms, over the same period.

At the end of February 2009, the European ETF industry had 643 ETFs, with 1,597 listings and total assets of $129.17 billion, from 29 providers on 20 exchanges.

So far this year the number of ETFs has increased by 1.7%, with 7 new ETFs launched to end-February. In 2009 so far, the average daily trading volume in US dollars has increased by 0.5% to US$2.03 billion.