The popularity of exchange traded funds has triggered a frenzy among big banks to come out with exchange traded-notes,
Shefali Anand writes in today's
Wall Street Journal Fund Track column. Among those that have already launched or are planning to launch exchange-trade notes, close cousins of ETFs, are
Barclays Bank,
Goldman Sachs,
Bear Stearns,
J.P. Morgan Chase and
Deutsche Bank. Investment banks view ETNs as an easy way to repackage and sell structured notes, which had previously been available only to wealthy customers and big institutional investors. "ETNs are going to explode in popularity,"
Christopher Yeagley, head of Global Investment Solutions Americas at Deutsche Bank, told
The Journal, adding: "From an investor's standpoint, it looks feels and smells similar" to ETFs. 
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