A quick take on a long-running theme in markets, especially fixed-income.

Investors are reaching for a toolkit of exchange traded funds, mutual funds and credit derivatives to make up for a dearth of liquidity in parts of the financial system, according to market participants and research from Barclays.

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Many have turned to ETFs, mutual funds and certain derivatives to make up for a lack of liquidity. ETFs use a network of banks and trading firms to give investors cheap and instant exposure to a wide variety of assets.

The trend is particularly pronounced in the fixed income market, where new rules aimed at increasing bank capital and reducing the risk of a run in the “repo market” — Ground Zero for the financial crisis — are said to have most hurt ease of trading.

Risks squeezed out of banks pop up elsewhere