20 years of ETFs from the Swiss Stock Exchange

As one of the first European exchanges to launch a segment for Exchange Traded Funds in 2000, today the Swiss Stock Exchange – together with its issuers and market makers – offers investors more choice than ever to trade ETFs in a liquid and secure marketplace.

18 September 2020 marks the newest chapter in the success story of ETFs on the Swiss Stock Exchange celebrating two decades of ETF trading. In 2000, the Swiss Stock Exchange became one of the first exchanges in Europe to open an ETF segment. In the two decades since then, the ETF segment has demonstrated strong growth. In the first eight months of 2020 alone, the ETF trading turnover amounted to more than CHF 80 billion and the number of transactions was up a staggering 62% compared to the same period in 2019, reaching 1.15 million.

With almost 1,600 ETFs from 28 product issuers, SIX provides access to a broad and diversified offering, which can benefit from continuous liquidity provision by 16 official market makers. This year alone, four new ETF issuers joined the Swiss Stock Exchange – Credit Suisse Asset Management, HANetf, PIMCO, and Rize ETF – as well as two new market makers, Credit Suisse Securities Europe and RBC Capital Markets. Since the beginning of the year, 129 new ETFs have been listed.

Alain Picard, Head Trading Sales & Management at the Swiss Stock Exchange, comments: “Every milestone we are reaching in our 20 year success story of ETFs at SIX is an opportunity for us to thank our issuers and our market makers. They make sure that investors have one of the biggest choices of ETFs and attractive trading conditions, which we support with our commitment to innovation and continuous improvement.”

Over the past 20 years, equity ETFs have been joined by asset categories such as government and corporate bond, money market, commodity and real estate ETFs. ETF products also encompass regions, countries, sectors, investment strategies and themes. Their variety and number have grown continuously as a consequence of various innovations. In May 2019, the range of ETFs on offer on the Swiss Stock Exchange reached the 1,500 mark, making the ETF segment a major contributor to the diversification in tradable securities on the Swiss Stock Exchange. Since just the beginning of 2020, a total of 7 actively managed ETFs and 122 new passively managed ETFs have been listed on the Swiss Stock Exchange.