October 2025 was another month with healthy inflows for the global ETF industry.
These inflows occurred in a month of cautious optimism for global markets. Investors were caught between shifting central bank tones, renewed geopolitical jitters, and a tentative rebound in risk appetite.
The U.S. Federal Reserve finally delivered what investors had priced in for weeks—a modest rate cut paired with dovish forward guidance, hinting at more to come. The underlying message that the tightening cycle is over rippled through bond markets and boosted equities. In contrast, the European Central Bank stood pat, opting for stability amid slowing growth and still-elevated inflation expectations. The policy divergence widened transatlantic yield spreads and pushed the euro modestly lower against the dollar.
Political turbulence once again gripped Europe. France’s third government reshuffle in less than a year rattled investors, lifting French bond spreads and denting confidence in the eurozone’s reform narrative. Meanwhile, renewed optimism over U.S.–China trade talks, coupled with easing sanctions rhetoric, injected a dose of relief into Asian equities. As a result, markets priced in a fragile sense of stability, dependent on political headlines.
After months of selling pressure, sovereign bonds staged a notable comeback. Yields on 10-year U.S. Treasuries fell back below 4.2%, while U.K. gilts and German Bunds saw similar declines of 25–31 basis points. The rally reflected not only cooling inflation data but also growing expectations of synchronized monetary easing in early 2026. Still, analysts warned that structural risks—such as high fiscal deficits, sticky service inflation, and geopolitical fragmentation—could easily cap further gains.
Stocks ended the month on a cautiously positive note. The Nasdaq led gains, fueled by strong earnings from AI-related tech giants and easing funding costs. European markets lagged, weighed down by political noise and sluggish manufacturing data. Sector rotation was evident—defensives and energy underperformed, while luxury and automotive names caught a bid from signs of Chinese consumer recovery.
October’s rebound hinted at resilience but also fragility. Investors are increasingly trading between two narratives—soft-landing optimism versus structural headwinds. With policy easing back on the table, increasing earnings pressure, and geopolitics refusing to fade, the search for stability might have just begun.
From a global ETF industry perspective, the performance of the underlying markets led, in combination with the estimated net flows, to increasing assets under management (from €17,607.8 bn as of September 30, 2025, to €18,143.6 bn at the end of October). At a closer look, the increase in assets under management of €535.9 bn for October was driven by the performance of the underlying markets (+€292.7 bn), while estimated net inflows added (+€243.1 bn) to the increase in assets under management.
Assets Under Management by Asset Type
As for the overall structure of the global ETF industry, it was not surprising equity ETFs ($13,858.0 bn) held the majority of assets, followed by bond ETFs ($3,015.2 bn), alternatives ETFs ($651.0 bn), commodities ETFs ($394.9 bn), money market ETFs ($134.9 bn), mixed-assets ETFs ($69.1 bn), and “other” ETFs ($20.5 bn).
Within the current market environment, it is not surprising that the assets under management for all asset types with the exception of “other” marked an all-time high at the end of the month. This is because the main markets reached new all-time highs after the recovery which started after the drawdowns in April.
Graph 1: Market Share, Assets Under Management in the Global ETF Industry by Asset Type, October 31, 2025
Source: LSEG Lipper
ETF Flows by Asset Type
The global ETF industry enjoyed healthy estimated net inflows (+$243.1 bn) over the course of October despite the positive but still somewhat fragile environment in the equity markets. These inflows drove the overall inflows in ETFs up to $1,598.7 bn for the year 2025 so far.
Inflows to the global ETF industry for October were driven by equity ETFs (+$146.4 bn), followed by bond ETFs (+$68.6 bn), alternatives ETFs (+$12.4 bn), commodities ETFs (+$8.7 bn), money market ETFs (+$3.7 bn), and mixed-assets ETFs (+$3.4 bn), while “other” ETFs (-$0.1 bn) faced outflows.
Graph 2: Estimated Net Sales by Asset Type, October 2025 (USD Billions)
Source: LSEG Lipper
Assets Under Management by Lipper Global Classifications
In order to examine the global ETF industry in further detail, a review of the Lipper global classifications will lead to more insights on the structure and concentration of assets within the global ETF industry. At the end of October 2025, the global ETF market was split into 300 different Lipper global classifications (peer groups). When it comes to this, one needs to remember that LSEG Lipper updated its Lipper Global Classification system at the beginning of October. The highest assets under management at the end of October were held by funds classified as Equity U.S. ($6,522.4 bn), followed by Equity Global ex U.S. ($1,046.5 bn), Equity U.S. Small & Mid Cap ($967.7 bn), Equity Global ($778.1 bn), and Equity Japan ($761.8 bn). These five peer groups accounted for $10,076.5 bn, or 55.54%, of the overall assets under management in the global ETF industry, while the 10-top classifications by assets under management accounted for $12,552.6 bn, or 69.18%, of the overall assets under management.
Overall, 17 of the 300 peer groups each accounted for more than 1% of assets under management. In total, these 17 peer groups accounted for $14,324.6 bn, or 78.95%, of the overall assets under management.
Graph 3: Ten Largest Lipper Global Classifications by Assets Under Management, October 31, 2025 (USD Billions)
Source: LSEG Lipper
The peer groups on the other side of the table showed some funds in the global ETF market are quite low in assets, and their constituents may face the risk of being closed in the near future. They are obviously lacking investor interest and might, therefore, not be profitable for their respective fund promoters.
Graph 4: Ten Smallest Lipper Global Classifications by Assets Under Management, October 31, 2025 (USD Billions)
Source: LSEG Lipper
ETF Flows by Lipper Global Classifications
The net inflows of the 10 best-selling Lipper classifications accounted for $158.8 bn. In line with the overall sales trend for October, equity peer groups (+$115.0 bn) gathered the majority of flows by asset type on the table of the 10 best-selling classifications by estimated net inflows for October 2025. That said, compared with the concentration of flows for the single regions, the 10 best-selling Lipper classifications showed a somewhat similar diversification at the global level since there are only mixed-assets and money market classifications missing on the table. That said, this is not surprising since mixed assets and money markets are not a core asset class for the global ETF industry. Given the overall fund flow trend in the global ETF industry and the dominance of the U.S. as leading market for ETFs, it was not surprising that Equity U.S. (+$73.4 bn) was the best-selling Lipper global classification for October. It was followed by Bond USD Medium Term (+$14.2 bn) and Equity Sector Information Technology (+$13.0 bn).
More generally, as said before these numbers showed the global ETF segment shows a high concentration when it comes to the estimated net flows by classification. Generally speaking, one would expect the flows into ETFs to be concentrated since investors often use ETFs to implement their market views and short-term asset allocation decisions. These products are made and, therefore, are easy to use for these purposes. In addition, one needs to bear in mind that the numbers for the global ETF industry are heavily impacted by the fund flow trends in the U.S.
Graph 5: Ten Best- and Worst-Lipper Global Classifications by Estimated Net Sales, October 2025 (USD Billions)
Source: LSEG Lipper
On the other side of the table, the 10 peer groups with the highest estimated net outflows for October accounted for $8.6 bn in outflows. These outflows were significantly below the outflows for the previous month (-$12.9 bn).
Equity Sector Financials (-$2.1 bn) was the classification with the highest outflows for the month. It was bettered by Equity U.S. Small & Mid Cap (-$1.8 bn), Loan Participation Funds (-$0.9 bn), Equity Germany Small & Mid Cap (-$0.8 bn), and Equity Hong Kong (-$0.8 bn). The classifications with the highest outflows may indicate that some investors are reducing the risk in their portfolios.
Assets Under Management by Promoters
A closer look at assets under management by promoters in the global ETF industry also showed high concentration, with only 216 of the 741 ETF promoters in the global ETF industry holding assets at or above $1.0 bn, accounting for overall assets under management of $18,051.5 bn. The largest ETF promoter in the global ETF industry—iShares ($5,365.8 bn)—accounted for 29.57% of the overall assets under management, ahead of the number-two promoter—Vanguard ($4,126.9 bn)—and the number-three promoter—SPDR ($1,938.0 bn).
Graph 6: The 10 Largest ETF Promoters by Assets Under Management, October 31, 2025 (USD Billions)
Source: LSEG Lipper
The 10-top promoters accounted for 79.55% of the overall assets under management in the global ETF industry. This meant, in turn, the other 731 fund promoters registering at least one ETF for sale accounted for only 20.45% of the overall assets under management. These numbers show that the assets under management at the promoter level in the global ETF industry are somewhat more diversified than in the single regions. This is not surprising, as some promoters are only active in single regions/markets and, therefore, take away some market share from the global promoters.
ETF Flows by Promoters
Since the global ETF industry is highly concentrated with regard to the assets under management by promoter, it was not surprising that six of the 10 largest promoters by assets under management were among the 10-top selling ETF promoters for October. Vanguard was the best-selling ETF promoter in the global ETF industry for the month (+$55.9 bn), ahead of iShares (+$46.6 bn) and SPDR (+$25.4 bn).
Graph 7: Ten Best-Selling ETF Promoters, October 2025 (USD Billions)
Source: LSEG Lipper
The flows of the 10 top promoters accounted for estimated net inflows of $175.9 bn. As for the overall flow trend in October, it was clear that some of the 741 promoters (192) faced estimated net outflows (-$13.4 bn in total) over the course of the month.
Assets Under Management by Region
ETFs domiciled in North America ($13,642.7 bn) held the highest assets under management in the global ETF industry at the end of October 2025. They were followed by ETFs domiciled in Europe ($2,920.2 bn), ETFs domiciled in the Asia Pacific region ($1,541.8 bn), ETFs domiciled in South and Central America ($22.9 bn), ETFs domiciled in Africa ($14.2 bn), while other domiciles held ($1.9 bn) in assets under management.
Graph 8: Assets Under Management in the Global ETF Industry by Region – October 31, 2025 (in bn USD)
Source: LSEG Lipper
These numbers show that the global ETF industry is a truly global industry with a high concentration of assets under management in a few domiciles.
Estimated Net Flows by Region
In reviewing the estimated flows in the global ETF industry by fund domicile and the respective regions, one needs to bear in mind that some domiciles have specific advantages or disadvantages when it comes to ETF distribution. The U.S. is, for example, a single market and can take profit from the size of the overall market, while in Europe every market is or at least can be an ETF domicile, which means that the local markets are much smaller.
That said, the EU countries have established a fund regulation (Undertakings in Collective Investments and Transferable Securities, or UCITS) which enables the fund and ETF industry to cross-list all products which are registered for sale in one EU country into another EU country. Since UCITS has become such a well-recognized regulatory standard for mutual funds and ETFs, some countries in South and Central America, as well as in Asia, allow UCITS funds to be cross-listed and sold to local investors. It is fair to say that there is no other regulatory framework available that allows funds to be distributed in various countries around the globe. Other mutual recognition agreements, such as those between Hong Kong and China or Hong Kong and Taiwan, are only bilateral and have no global reach. This means that the estimated flows for European ETFs also include flows from South and Central America, as well as from Asia.
Graph 9: Estimated Net Flows in the Global ETF Industry by Region, October 2025 (in bn USD)
Source: LSEG Lipper
As one may expect from the assets under management, ETFs domiciled in North America (+$180.5 bn) enjoyed the highest estimated net inflows for October 2025. They were followed by ETFs domiciled in Europe (+$45.7 bn), Asia Pacific (+$16.7 bn), South and Central America (+$0.2 bn), and Africa (+$0.1 bn). Conversely, ETFs domiciled in other Regions (-$0.03 bn), faced estimated net outflows.
Assets Under Management by Domicile
To investigate the concentration of the assets under management by region further, it makes sense to analyze the assets under management by domicile. As of the end of October 2025, the U.S. was the largest single country ETF domicile ($13,106.0 bn) of the 42 ETF domiciles covered in this report, followed by Ireland ($2,131.1 bn), Japan ($721.8 bn), Canada ($536.7 bn), and Luxembourg ($531.0 bn). These five ETF domiciles account for assets under management of $17,026.6 bn, or 93.84%, of the overall assets under management in the global ETF industry.
Graph 10: Ten Largest ETF Domiciles by Assets Under Management – October 31, 2025 (in bn USD)
Source: LSEG Lipper
These numbers show that the assets under management in the global ETF industry are dominated by a small number of domiciles. Obviously, this concentration is caused by the time period over which ETFs are available in the single domiciles, as well the overall market size of these domiciles. That said, Ireland and Luxembourg are true global ETF hubs since ETFs registered under the UCITS regulation can be sold in various markets around the world.
Estimated Net Flows by Domicile
In more detail, the U.S. (+$171.5 bn) was the single fund domicile with the highest estimated net inflows for October. It was followed by Ireland (+$31.8 bn), Luxembourg (+$12.8 bn), Canada (+$9.0 bn), and South Korea (+$5.9 bn).
Graph 11: The 10 ETF Domiciles with the Highest Estimated Net Inflows, October 2025 (in bn USD)
Source: LSEG Lipper
The list of the 10 best-selling domiciles does an even better job of showcasing that ETFs are truly a global phenomenon since it shows that investors around the globe are using ETFs to implement their asset allocation views into their portfolios.
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.
