The Swiss promoters of exchanged-traded funds (ETF), organised under the umbrella of ETF Ambassadors, plan to accelerate the pace of acitivities in 2016 after what observers perceive as a lull.

Rino Borini (picture), head of Financialmedia and editor of «10x10-ETF» magazin is the engine behind the campaign to convince the citizen investor to put his money into index trackers traded on the exchange. ETF Ambassadors was the association, which went public in 2013 uniting powerful players of the Swiss financial market.

SIX, the operator of the stock exchange, where most ETFs are traded in Switzerland, and iShares, a unit of BlackRock were members, along with Commerzbank, Credit Suisse and Moneypark, a financial advisor.

Big Players Keep Distance

Following the boisterous start of 2013, it has become a little more quiet. So much so that some say the intiative has run its course. Part of the reason may be that the biggest player in the ETF business in Switzerland, UBS, kept its distance, together with Zürcher Kantonalbank, GAM and Raiffeisen.

ETF Ambassadors was able to recruit Vanguard and State Street as well as some smaller players, Comstage, Jane Street and Secure Wealth Management.

Activities to Increase

Not all liked the ETF Ambassadors initiative, observers told finews.ch. SFAMA, the Swiss Funds & Asset Management Association has its own ETF committee. Commerzbank, iShares, Credit Suisse, Vanguard, GAM and SIX all have representatives in this committee as well.

Borini agrees that there's lots still to be done. The association is currently organizing monthly seminars for investors and makes studies on the use of ETFs. Still, he knows the group needs to up the pace. He's planning a big event scheduled to take place around the turn of the year. The date hasn't yet been fixed.