Europe's second-largest insurer Axa and French bank BNP Paribas are launching the first exchange-traded fund to track a commodity index.

Axa and BNP started a joint venture in February to develop and manage the funds under the EasyETF brand.

The new index, which will be based on the Goldman Sachs Commodity Index. is expected to start trading on the German stock exchange on 17 May. It will be denominated in euros and dollars. BNP and Axa are looking to register the fund on other stock exchanges.

According to Barclays Global Investors, exchange-traded funds saw net inflows of USD 9.7 billion during March, reaching USD 228.3 billion, of which BGI, the UK's largest ETF provider, held USD 122.1 billion.