Competition between stock exchanges to attract exchange traded funds is heating up. In October, Bats Global Markets announced its Issuer Incentive Program that will pay ETF providers to list their products on its US exchange.

Usually ETF issuers in the US pay exchanges between $5,000 and $55,000 a year based on their products' assets under management, as well as a one-off initial listing fee for some exchanges. Instead, Bats will list ETFs for free and promises an annual "rebate", ranging from $3,000 up to $400,000 depending on the amount of trading on the shares.