Vanguard Asset Management has announced the cross-listing of three of its Irish-domiciled exchange-traded funds (ETFs) on the SIX Swiss Exchange.

Vanguard has made its ETF debut on the SIX Swiss Exchange.

The listing broadens the asset manager’s presence in the European ETF market following its launch on the London Stock Exchange last year.

The ETFs, which are physically backed and track well-known indices from FTSE and S&P, provide Swiss investors with low-cost access to US, global and emerging equity markets.

Tom Rampulla, head of Vanguard’s European operations, said: “Like our traditional mutual funds, our physically- backed ETFs offer investors a simple, low-cost way to gain broadly diversified market exposure. These are the first ETFs we’ve cross-listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange and it’s a logical step in providing increased access to our products across Europe.”

The three ETFs are:

Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (VUSA)
Tracks the S&P 500 Index, the most widely followed single gauge of the US equities market. The index includes 500 leading large-cap companies across the major industries of the US economy, representing approximately 75% coverage of US equities. Total expense ratio (TER) 0.09%.

Vanguard FTSE All-World ETF (VWRL)
Tracks the FTSE All-World Index, a market-capitalisation-weighted index representing the performance of large and mid-cap stocks from developed and emerging market countries worldwide, covering 90-95% of the world’s investable market capitalisation. TER 0.25%.

Vanguard FTSE Emerging Markets ETF (VFEM)
Tracks the FTSE Emerging Index, a market-capitalisation-weighted index measuring the equity performance of large- and mid-cap companies in multiple emerging markets across Europe, Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Middle East. TER 0.45%.

Goldenberg Hehmeyer and Commerzbank will act as market makers.

In an interview, Jacques-Etienne Doerr, Managing Officer for Vanguard Investments Switzerland, said: “Switzerland was an obvious choice for Vanguard. It’s one of Europe’s biggest ETF markets, of course, and a country in which we have been building a presence in recent years. But more fundamentally, Swiss investors are very sophisticated and understand the importance of keeping costs under control in investing. We have received a very positive response from investors to our existing low-cost product range, so it was a natural choice to extend our offer.”

He added: “Switzerland is an important market for Vanguard. We will make sure our fund range evolves to continue to meet the needs of Swiss investors. We are here to stay and to serve Swiss investors by providing high quality, low cost solutions. ETFs are a large part of that service.”

With this launch, the number of ETF issuers on SIX Swiss Exchange has grown to 19, offering a combined 905 products. Alain Picard, Head Product Management at SIX Swiss, said: “We warmly welcome our new ETF provider and wish Vanguard a lot of success on the Swiss market.”

Worldwide, the Vanguard group manages $245.6 billion in ETF assets (as at 31 December, 2012).