(April 9 – 09:20 ET) – The New York Times is reporting that the New York Stock Exchange is set to begin trading exchange-traded funds.

The NYSE has decided to list ETFs based on the Nasdaq 100, the Standard & Poor’s 500 and the Dow Jones industrial average. The Big Board already lists an ETF based on the S&P Global 100, but it is now making a bigger commitment to the product, encroaching on to the turf that is dominated by the American Stock Exchange in the United States. The Times says this is the first time that the NYSE has sought to list a security that is primarily listed on another U.S. exchange.

The NYSE will also seek new ETFs to trade, but in launching trading of these existing ETFs, it will have to pay licencing fees to both the indexers and the rival Nasdaq exchange, which now owns the Amex.

ETFs have been steadily attacking the market share of mutual funds in the past couple of years, and are undoubtedly one of the reasons behind reports that more mutual funds shut down and more funds merged than ever before, last year. The Times says a forthcoming report from Wiesenberger/ Thomson Financial will show that last year 225 mutual funds were liquidated, about half were bond funds. Another 451 funds were merged.

Ramy Shaalan, an analyst at Wiesenberger, told the Times that mutual funds that shuttered themselves or merged “often took the action because they were not profitable unless they had assets of $25 million to $50 million. Some mergers are also an attempt by fund management companies to hide poorly performing funds.” This year, there have already been 182 fund liquidations, putting the industry on record pace again.