Institutional investors are increasingly bullish on using Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs) in their portfolios. When looking to invest in ETFs, U.S. institutions turn most often to iShares, BlackRock's ETF business.

Nearly one-half of the asset management firms and one-third of the institutional funds taking part in a new Greenwich Associates study of current institutional ETF users plan to increase the share of portfolio assets they invest in ETFs over the next two years. The study, which is in its second year, was conducted by Greenwich Associates and sponsored by BlackRock. The results are based on interviews with 45 institutional funds - including corporate pensions, public pensions, and endowments and foundations - and 25 large asset management firms in the United States. As a group, these institutions manage some $7.5 trillion.

ETF Allocations Expanding

Institutional use of ETFs has increased steadily over the past several years. The results of this study indicate a continuation of that trend:

* Forty-eight percent of asset management firms interviewed for the study expect to increase portfolio allocations to ETFs between now and 2013. Of those, slightly more than half expect to increase ETF allocations by 5% or more.

* Among institutional funds, approximately one-third of study participants expect to increase ETF allocations by 2013. Those
institutional funds were about evenly divided with roughly half planning to increase allocations by 1- 4% and half planning increases of 5% or more.

"Perhaps even more telling than those findings is the fact that not a single asset manager reported plans to cut ETF allocations in the coming two years, and less than one in 10 institutional funds plan to reduce allocations to ETFs in that period," says Greenwich Associates consultant Andrew McCollum.

ETFs: Not Just for "Passive" Purposes

Though conventional thinking may be that ETFs only provide passive exposure, many respondents view their ETF investments as "active" exposures. Among asset managers, 53% say that ETFs are used to gain active exposure to international equities and 43% use ETFs for active exposure to domestic equities. These respondents are not necessarily using actively managed ETFs, but rather use passive ETFs to gain a tactical active exposure. Institutional funds are slightly less likely to view ETFs in this way, with 23% and 15% using ETFs to gain a tactical active exposure to domestic and international equities, respectively.

Institutions participating in the study use ETFs for four main functions: cash equitization, manager transitions, rebalancing, and
making tactical adjustments to portfolios. Notably, 75% of asset managers in the study use ETFs for gaining rapid exposure to an asset class (i.e., cash equitization) and 63% of institutional fund respondents use ETFs during the transition management process. In addition to the four main ETF uses, approximately 30% of participating asset managers use ETFs for hedging and 20% use them for portfolio completion.

ETFs: New Use Emerging

A small, but growing group of investors also utilize ETFs as a liquidity sleeve in their portfolios. In fact, 10% of institutional funds and asset managers note using ETFs for this purpose.

"The marked increase in the use of ETFs for liquidity management is a significant development, reflecting sharper focus by institutions to assert control over their operational abilities during periods of irregular market conditions," said Liz Tennican, Head of U.S. iShares Institutional at BlackRock. "The lessons of the global financial crisis of 2007-08 were hard ones. Institutional investors are applying their acquired knowledge from that period to their search for effective liquidity solutions. ETFs are proving to be a great tool for them."

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