When ETFs were introduced to the market, these new products were made to track the performance of major equity indices such as the S&P 500, Nasdaq 100, Dow Jones Industrial, FTSE 100, EuroStoxx 50, etc. Over time other asset types such as bonds, commodities, money market, mixed assets, and alternatives were added to the product line up. These additions made ETFs even more attractive for all kinds of investors.
While ETFs where invented and first launched in Canada, the new product type made its way to the U.S. soon after the first product was launched. As ETFs became popular investment vehicles used by all types of investors in North America, it was no surprise that the other regions were starting to recognize ETFs under their local regulations, enabling the launch of ETFs for local investors. Despite the success of ETFs in the U.S., it took roughly 10 years before passive ETFs became a global phenomenon.
Given the high (daily) transparency of the holdings within an ETF, a high percentage of active portfolio managers did not consider launching an ETF as distribution wrapper, as they didn’t want to display the changes in their portfolio in “real time” to avoid front running other investors. In other words, one could say, they didn’t want to give away their “secret sauce,” hence their intellectual property for portfolio construction.
As ETFs became widely used by professional and retail investors all over the world, the promoters of actively managed products started to campaign against passive products, as they only deliver the return of their underlying index minus the management fees. Conversely, academic research suggested that investors should invest the core parts of their portfolios at the lowest expense possible, since high annual (management) fees are massively reducing the overall returns of a portfolio. This is especially true during periods of market turmoil, when the respective products show a negative return. Additionally, academic research suggested that investors should use passive investment products in “efficient” markets, as active management could only deliver an insignificant additional return in a market where all information is priced in the valuation of a security immediately. Respectively, the same research found that investors should use actively managed products in markets with a low “market efficiency.” Last, but not least, some market observers publish regular research on the ability of active managers to outperform their underlying markets, which almost always show that the average active manager is not able to outperform its markets. Hence, an investor in the average actively managed fund is better off by buying a cheap passive product.
All these studies are positive for passive products in general and especially ETFs, since these products do often have a lower management fee such as index funds, and have further driven the adoption of ETFs by investors around the globe and caused some investors to sell the actively managed funds in their portfolios and buy ETFs which give them access to the same markets instead.
These outflows accumulated and reached a point where they couldn’t be offset by the inflows into actively managed funds anymore. This was at the beginning especially true in the U.S. where actively managed funds, especially those investing in U.S. large caps, were heavily hit by outflows. At the same time, some promoters of actively managed mutual funds launched actively managed ETFs. These ETFs became quite soon a success story as investors swapped their exposure from expensive actively managed mutual funds to the cheaper actively managed ETFs. This doesn’t only save them money from the management fees, it also unlocked a tax advantage. As word about the advantages of ETFs spread, an increasing number of financial advisors, wealth managers, and self-directed investors in the U.S. started to swap actively managed mutual funds for ETFs with a similar investment objective.
Inspired and driven by the success of active ETFs in the U.S., ETF promoters around the globe started to launch active ETFs in their respective home markets.
This report evaluates the assets under management and fund flow trends in active ETFs in the global ETF industry. Nevertheless, it gives also an overview on the market size of the single regions, as well as their contribution to the overall growth of active ETFs globally.
Assets Under Management
The assets under management (AUM) in the global ETF industry stood at $22,098.4 bn at the end of June 2026. Despite all the news about the growth of actively managed ETFs, the industry is measured by the AUM dominated by passive ETFs. In more detail, the assets under management of actively managed ETFs reached $2,740.9 bn globally at the end of June 2026, while the AUM of passive ETFs stood at $19.357.4 bn.
Graph 1: Market Share of Assets Under Management in the Global ETF Industry by Management Approach, June 30, 2026
Source: LSEG Lipper
By looking at these numbers, one needs to bear in mind that actively managed ETFs are a relatively new product type which is growing fast (Please see the fund flows section of this report for more details on this topic). Hence, the current relatively low market share of the assets under management is set to increase massively over time.
Assets Under Management by Region
As one would expect, the U.S. is not only the largest ETF domicile by assets under management in the world, but also the dominating domicile for active ETFs globally, as active ETFs domiciled in the U.S. held AUM of $2.181.9 bn at the end of June 2026. The U.S. were followed by Europe ($133.1 bn), the Indo-Pacific Region ($215.8 bn), while other global ETF domiciles (Rest of the World) held assets under management of $210.2 bn.
Graph 2: Market Share of the Assets Under Management in the Global ETF Industry by Management Approach and Region, June 30, 2026
Source: LSEG Lipper
Graph 2 shows that the market share of actively managed ETFs domiciled in the U.S. is even larger than for their passive peers. Even as this is to be expected, given the fact that the trend to invest in actively managed ETFs started in the U.S. years before it became a global trend, it also shows that the other regions around the globe have a lot of room for the growth of actively managed ETFs.
Assets Under Management by Asset Type
Given the overall structure of the global ETF industry, it was not surprising that the assets under management of actively managed funds follow a similar structure (Please see our report on the global ETF industry for more information on this topic). Equity ETFs ($1,308.9 bn) held the majority of assets, followed by bond ETFs ($690.0 bn), alternatives ETFs ($575.6 bn), money market ETFs ($73.6 bn), mixed-assets ETFs ($59.5 bn), commodities ETFs ($19.2 bn), and other ETFs ($14.2 bn).
Graph 3: Assets Under Management of Active ETFs in the Global ETF Industry by Asset Type, June 30, 2026 (in bn USD)
Source: LSEG Lipper
More generally, the split of the assets under management held by actively managed ETFs globally is somewhat different than for ETFs overall. The main differences can be seen in alternatives ETFs and equity ETFs, which means that investors globally are using actively managed ETFs as one would expect, as alternatives are considered a natural habitat of active management. The same might be true for mixed-assets, but this asset type generally only a plays a minor role for ETF investors.
ETF Flows by Asset Type
The global ETF industry enjoyed strong estimated net inflows (+$1,500.0 bn) over the course of the first half of 2026. In line with this, actively managed ETFs also enjoyed strong inflows (+$453.3 bn) for the first half of 2026.
A comparison of the market share of actively managed ETFs of the assets under management (12.40%) and the market share of actively managed ETFs of the estimated net sales (30.23%) shows that actively managed ETF are growing on a fast pace.
Graph 4: Market Share of Estimated Net Sales (January 1 – June 30, 2026) by Management Approach
Source: LSEG Lipper
Given the fact that the overall estimated net flows are heavily impacted by U.S. investors, it will be interesting to observe what happens when the demand for actively managed ETFs increases in the other regions. The other regions may still lack the variety of actively managed ETFs which are available to U.S. investors, as well as the right level of investor education.
Given the general fund flow trend in the global ETF industry over the course of the first half of 2026, it is not surprising that the estimated net flows for actively managed ETFs were driven by equity ETFs (+$235.9 bn), followed by bond ETFs (+$121.0 bn), alternatives ETFs (+$59.6 bn), money market ETFs (+$24.8 bn), mixed-assets ETFs (+$11.0 bn), and commodities ETFs (+$2.7 bn). Conversely, other ETFs (-$1.7 bn), was the only asset type which witnessed outflows from actively managed ETFs over the course of the first half of 2026.
Graph 5: Estimated Net Sales for Actively Managed ETFs Globally by Asset Type, January 1 – June 30, 2026 (USD Billions)
Source: LSEG Lipper
The estimated net flows in actively managed ETFs for the first six months of 2026 show that investors globally are using these ETFs as one would expect, since actively managed bond, alternatives, money market, and mixed-assets ETFs enjoyed strong inflows.
As for passive ETFs, the estimated net flows for actively managed ETFs in the global ETF industry were dominated by the U.S. ETF industry (+$355.5 bn), followed by the Indo-Pacific Region (+$40.5 bn), the rest of the world (+$32.3 bn), and Europe (+$25.0 bn).
Graph 6: Market Share of Estimated Net Sales for Actively Managed ETFs Globally by Region, January 1 – June 30, 2026 (USD Billions)
Source: LSEG Lipper
With regard to the overall size of the regional ETF industries and their overall market share of the estimated net flows in the global ETF industry, it is somewhat surprising that Europe takes the last spot on the list when it comes to estimated net flows in actively managed ETFs globally.
Assets Under Management by Promoters
A closer look at the split of the assets under management by management approach of the 20 largest ETF promoters globally shows that actively managed ETFs play only a minor role for most of the leading ETF promoters. This is not surprising, as the overall market share of the assets under management of actively managed ETFs is still comparably small (12.40%). Additionally, one needs to bear in mind that actively managed ETFs are not the home ground of the established ETF promoters; these products are rather issued by the promoters of actively managed mutual funds which are mostly not yet visible on the top ranks of this table.
Graph 7: The 20 Largest ETF Promoters in the Global ETF Industry by Assets Under Management, June 30, 2026 (USD Billions)
Source: LSEG Lipper
That said, actively managed ETFs are playing a significant role for JPMorgan (77.67% of the overall AUM), Fidelity International (46.95% of the overall AUM), First Trust (39.78% of the overall AUM), BMO Global Asset Management (25.69% of the overall AUM), and Mirae Asset (21.16% of the overall AUM).
A closer look at the assets under management of the 20 largest ETF promoters of actively managed ETFs in the global ETF industry shows that the market concentration in the segment of actively managed ETFs is lower as for the overall global ETF industry, since the 10 largest promoters of actively managed ETFs “only” account for $1,521.7 bn, or 55.52%, of the overall assets under management, while the top 20 promoters account for 69.34%.
Dimensional ($316.3 bn) was the largest promoter of actively managed ETFs globally at the end of June 2026, followed by JPMorgan ($302.4 bn), iShares ($173.3 bn), American Century Investments ($145.8 bn), and Capital Group/American Funds ($118.7 bn).
Graph 8: The 20 Largest ETF Promoters of Actively Managed ETFs Globally by Assets Under Management, June 30, 2026 (USD Billions)
Source: LSEG Lipper
Obviously, the table of the 20 largest promoters of actively managed ETFs globally is dominated by ETF promoters with an international distribution footprint. Nevertheless, there are also some ETF promoters on the list which only act locally in their home region/market.
ETF Flows by Promoters
Given the overall structure of the global ETF industry with regard to the promoters of actively managed ETFs, it was not surprising that seven of the 10 largest promoters by assets under management were among the 10-top selling ETF promoters for H1 2026. iShares was the best-selling promoter for actively managed ETFs globally (+$43.2 bn), ahead of JPMorgan (+$37.9 bn) and American Century Investments (+$30.2 bn).
Graph 9: Twenty Best-Selling ETF Promoters of Actively Managed ETFs Globally, January 1 – June 30, 2026 (USD Billions)
Source: LSEG Lipper
The flows of the 10-top promoters accounted for estimated net inflows of $246.4 bn over the course of the first six months of 2026, while the 20-top promoters accounted for estimated net inflows of $330.4 bn. These numbers suggest that the estimated net inflows in actively managed ETFs are way lower concentrated than the estimated net flows in the global ETF industry overall.
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.
