In another sign that the ETN industry is officially in terminal decline, Index Universe is reporting that Barclays’ iPath line of ETNs won’t be sold to Blackrock along with its iShares ETF unit.

One can only imagine that Blackrock simply didn’t want to deal with winding these things down. ETNs are debt instruments that are heavily exposed to direct counterparty risk. Once considered competitors to ETFs, they have fallen of favour with investors.