The first of the new vehicles, the iShares Markit iBoxx $ High Yield Capped Bond fund is said by the firm to be the first European ETF to offer exposure to the US high yield market, and tracks the Markit iBoxx USD Liquid High Yield Capped index. The index comprises US dollar-denominated sub-investment grade corporate bonds from 400 firms, with each of the constituents being capped with a maximum individual issuer weighting of 3 per cent.

iShares will no doubt be hoping to replicate the success of the US-domiciled version of this fund, which since its launch in 2007 has garnered $8 billion in assets.

The second ETF is the iShares Barclays Capital US Aggregate Bond fund, which aims to offer broad-based exposure to the US dollar denominated investment grade fixed income market. The ETF will be physically-based and invest directly in underlying government, government-related, securitised and corporate bonds; it is designed to complement the firm’s iShares Barclays Capital Euro Aggregate Bond ETF, the firm said.

Both new funds are listed on the London Stock Exchange.