Sums managed by synthetic Exchange Traded Funds in Europe fell by 14.3% to $110.1bn in the first nine months of the year, a period in which the products attracted criticism from both European regulators and the media.

The fall has been confirmed in the latest review of the ETF sector by analysts at BlackRock, owner of iShares, which is principally a provider of physical ETFs. The fall compares to a 1.2% gain for ETFs backed by physical assets, trimming the overall loss of assets for the sector in Europe to 5.8%, leaving the grand total at $267bn. Globally, ETF assets fell by 3.8% to $1.43 trillion.