When it comes to future growth drivers and current market trends, active ETFs are a hot topic in the European ETF industry. There is not a single week in which an asset manager either enters or at least announces plans to enter the European ETF industry. But how does this trend impact the assets under management (AUM) of the 20 largest ETF promoters in Europe?
A closer look at assets under management of the 20 largest ETF promoters in Europe shows that actively managed ETFs in general only play a minor role for the 20 largest ETF promoters in Europe. These 20 ETF promoters hold €2.877,9 bn, or 97.08%, of their overall assets under management in passive ETFs at the end of May 2026 and only €86.6 bn, or 2.92%, of their overall assets under management in actively managed ETFs.
Nevertheless, graph 1 shows that this general assumption is not true for all of the 20 largest ETF promoters in Europe, as active ETFs are a significant part (over 5% of the overall AUM of the respective ETF promoters) of the assets under management of five ETF promoters on this table.
Graph 1: Assets Under Management of the 20 Largest ETF Promoters in Europe by Management Approach, May 31, 2026 (Euro Billions)
Source: LSEG Lipper
In more detail, JPMorgan (overall AUM: €47.9 bn) had the highest percentage of its assets under management (87.52%) in actively managed ETFs, followed by Fidelity International (overall AUM: €14.0 bn), which held 74.00% of its assets in actively managed ETFs, and PIMCO (overall AUM: €7.7 bn), with 73.72% of its AUM held in actively managed ETFs. In addition, Franklin Templeton (overall AUM: €11.2 bn) holds 10.17% of its overall AUM in actively managed ETFs, while BNP Paribas Easy ETF (overall AUM: €53.8 bn) holds “only” 8.27% of its overall assets under management in active ETFs.
Conversely, Global X (overall AUM: €7.8 bn), Legal & General (overall AUM: €25.1 bn), Swisscanto (overall AUM: €25.0 bn), VanEck (overall AUM: €40.0 bn), and Wisdom Tree (overall AUM: €15.4 bn) did not have any exposure at all to actively managed ETFs at the end of May 2026.
These numbers show that the trend toward actively managed ETFs is also visible in the assets under management of the 20 largest ETF promoters in Europe. That said, it looks like this trend has a different impact on the respective ETF promoters since some have gathered the majority of their AUM in actively managed ETFs, while others do not offer such products at all.
Since the trend toward actively managed ETFs is an emerging trend which seems will evolve further over the next couple of years, it might be interesting to see how the share of active ETFs of the AUM of the ETF promoters will change over time.
The views expressed are the views of the author, not necessarily those of LSEG.
This article is for information purposes only and does not constitute any investment advice.
