Standard & Poor's has chosen Crédit Lyonnais Asset Management to create, run and market its depositary receipts (Spdrs) in Europe, a move which stands to raise Crédit Lyonnais' profile in European fund management.

Spdrs are the dominant brand of exchange traded funds (ETFs) in the US. An ETF is a financial instrument that allows institutional and retail investors to track an index with only small amounts of money. They have been available for several years in the US, where the Spdr brand alone has attracted $31bn (€34bn) of investment.