The exchange traded fund industry in Australia could grow 10 times larger than what it is today. Currently, the business has $5 billion in assets under management, with indications of strong growth to come.
“If you go back to 2003, the Canadian ETF industry had $5.5bn invested, which is roughly the same amount invested in Australia’s ETF industry today,” he said. “My point is that if you adjust for the timeline you end up with about the same assets. There is a huge growth profile ahead for this industry in this country,” Howard Atkinson, President of Horizon ETF Management said. [BlackRock CEO Says ETFs Proliferating on Global Scale]
The parallel made between Canada and Australia was due to the similarities in both economies. However, while there is $5 billion in domestic Australian assets, there are $50 billion in AUM in the Canadian ETF industry. [Currency ETFs: Why it Pays to Watch the Aussie Dollar]
The first ETF was launched by State Street in 1993 in the United States. It wasn’t until 2001 that State Street launched the first ETF in Australia, and tracked the ASX 200. This delay of nearly a decade is a factor that has held up growth in the Aussie ETF industry, according to Atkinson, reports James Frost for The Australian.