A new study of exchange-traded funds has claimed that the distinction between synthetic and physical funds is ‘artificial’ and could lead to misselling. The Edhec-Risk Institute calls for ETFs to be rated according to their economic exposure and payout structures, rather than the investment technique.

The financial research arm of the EDHEC Business School calls physical and synthetic ETFs "economically equivalent operations" and said that with proper counterparty risk management, it made "little sense" to pit the two against each other.