Exchange-traded funds represent just a small portion of the portfolios of corporate and public pensions, endowments, foundations and asset managers, but a growing number of these institutions are using the funds for key functions and plan to boost their usage in the future, a new survey found.

Institutional investors already account for about half of the assets invested in ETFs, but 48% of asset management firms interviewed and 33% of institutional funds interviewed indicated they expect to increase their allocations to ETFs by 2013.