ABN Amro, the Dutch state-owned bank, has launched two exchange-traded funds (ETFs) to address the growing demand for passive funds.

ABN Amro has launched two ETFs to address the growing demand for index-tracking products.

The two ETFs, the ABN Amro Basic AEX UCITS ETF (AAEX) and ABN Amro Basic Euro Stoxx 50 UCITS ETF (ASX5), have been listed on Euronext Amsterdam are linked to the widely followed AEX and Euro Stoxx 50 indices, respectively.

Jan Erftemeijer of ABN Amro Markets said: “In the USA, we have seen the balance between active and passive investing shift towards passive over the past few years. In Europe, including the Netherlands, we are seeing a similar trend.”

The Amsterdam-headquartered bank said the US market for ETFs totalled $1,578 billion at year-end 2013, compared with $1,213 billion at year-end 2012, and noted that the market in Europe had expanded as well, going from $331 billion at year-end 2012 to $388 billion one year later.

Adriaan Kootstra, the fund manager responsible for the two ETFs, said: “We are offering two simple and transparent funds. Investors want to understand what they are investing in and the risks involved. We kept that in mind, so with our trackers ‘what you see is what you get’. The two funds are simple in that they are cost efficient and simply follow the index. They are transparent in that they do not make use of any complicated financial tools and do not engage in the practice of securities lending.”

The AEX Index is composed of the 25 most actively traded securities on the Amsterdam exchange. As well as reflecting the performance and market sentiment of the Dutch equity market, the index offers a degree of global exposure owing to the international orientation of the country’s leading companies. The index is weighted by free-float adjusted market capitalisation and includes a weighting cap of 15%.

The Euro Stoxx 50 Index is the leading blue-chip index for the euro zone. The index measures the performance of 50 supersector leaders from 12 euro zone countries, namely Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain.