The extent to which investors have embraced the S&P/ASX 200 over the past 10 years is clearly evident in the countless number of index funds, exchange traded funds (ETFs), and index-based structured products on offer in the market. Over A$200 billion is linked or benchmarked to the S&P/ASX 200. In more recent times the growth in this area has been significant, with the global financial crisis highlighting the need for transparency and independence that effectively translated into strong support for index investing. Since thefinancial crisis struck in late 2007, the growth of assets in index funds in the Australian market has been obvious. For example, the SPDR S&P/ASX 200 ETF has grown from approximately A$50 million to well over A$2 billion since its inception in 2001. Since the end of 2007, in spite of an oppressive stock market, assets under management for the SPDR S&P/ASX 200 ETF have tripled with strong inflows from both institutional and retail investors.
