Pressure point for the index industry

摘要

Over the past two decades, indexation has become increasingly popular. Indexes have evolved from their origins as information tools for financial markets and are now used to benchmark the performance of investment managers, price financial instruments and determine the payoffs to financial contracts. In addition, indexes are increasingly being employed as rules-driven investment strategies that can be used to capture various risk premia, sometimes referred to as "Smart Beta". This trend is revealed by the continued growth of index-tracking investment funds and ETFs which have grown in popularity globally. In 2015, global ETF assets under management exceeded $3 trillion for the first time, and the majority of market commentators believe this growth shows no sign of abating.