On April 11, 2025, the European ETF industry celebrates its twenty-fifth birthday. We would like to congratulate the industry with the publication of our annual ETF Yearbook, which provides an overview and analysis of trends in the European ETF industry and the wider ecosystem in 2024 and beyond. The ETF Yearbook analyzes assets under management and fund flows in the European ETF industry for 2024 from various perspectives. As a result, the ETF Yearbook offers unique insights and an unrivalled overview of the structure of the European ETF industry. In addition, the comprehensive analysis of fund flows identifies and describes

Despite the growth of the European ETF industry, there is one question which drives the discussions of market observers. Is there a consolidation ahead in the European ETF industry? This question seems to be a bit odd given the growth in assets under management and the overall level of estimated net inflows over the year 2024, as well as the previous years. On the other hand, the estimated net inflows were quite concentrated. This means that only a limited number of ETFs, and as a result a small number of promoters, were able to gather a significant share of these

Investors, market observers, and regulators always raise questions about the competitiveness of the European ETF industry since assets under management seem to be concentrated among a few ETF promoters. Generally speaking, I would agree with the statement that one needs to be concerned if a few players are dominating a market, but not when it comes to the European ETF industry. Graph 1 shows that the European ETF industry is highly concentrated at the promoter level since the 10-top promoters in Europe held between 93.52% (June 30, 2023) and 95.06% (December 31, 2024) of the overall assets under management in

February 2025 was another month with strong inflows (+€33.8 bn) for the European ETF industry. These flows were way above the rolling 12-month average (€23.5 bn) and might be an indicator that the European ETF industry is set to continue to grow above average over the course of 2025. In fact, if the European ETF industry is able to maintain net inflows at the same level for January and February for the rest of the year, it would hit an all-time high for annual inflows on a totally different level than before. The inflows in the European ETF industry for

February 2025 was another month with strong inflows for the European ETF industry. These inflows occurred in a volatile market environment in which investors around the globe acted nervous over any political and economic news. Investor sentiment was impacted by the discussions around tariffs by the U.S. president and potential tit-for-tat reactions from the markets which are the targets of the new tariffs. That said, the tariffs are seen as a kind of trade war between the U.S. and the rest of the world by some market observers. When it comes to this, investors were concerned about a political shift

The total expense ratio (TER) of an ETF is a measure that sums up the management fee of the ETF plus all other expenses paid by the ETF. Therefore, an analysis of the Total Expense Ratios is more meaningful than a quick comparison of management fees. Even though the TER is a competitive measure, it has some flaws since there are costs which are not covered within the TER. In addition, there are costs for buying, selling, and holding an ETF. All the missing costs are displayed in the total costs of ownership (TCO). Since some of these costs depend

The European ETF industry enjoyed strong estimated net inflows (+€29.0 bn) over the course of January. These flows were way above the rolling 12-month average (€22.0 bn) and might be an indicator that the European ETF industry is set to continue to grow above average over the course of 2025. The inflows in the European ETF industry for January were driven by equity ETFs (+€24.0 bn), followed by bond ETFs (+€3.6 bn), money market ETFs (+€1.7 bn), and mixed-assets ETFs (+€0.1 bn). On the other side of table, commodities ETFs (-€0.03 bn) and alternatives ETFs (-€0.4 bn) shed money. Estimated

January 2025 was another month with strong inflows for the European ETF industry. These inflows occurred in a mainly positive but volatile market environment. The markets were driven by the effects around the inauguration of Donald Trump as the next U.S. president. On one hand, investors appreciated the expected positive impacts on the U.S. economy from the new administration. Meanwhile, they feared the impacts from possible tariffs, which may cause a global trade war as an unwanted side-effect and higher government spending on the inflation and, therefore, on the resulting policies of the U.S. Federal Reserve. That said, the high

The global ETF industry enjoyed strong inflows over the course of 2024. These inflows occurred in a mainly positive market environment. While most equity markets were further on the rise over the course of the year despite the high valuations of the market leaders. Meanwhile, some bond segments faced the impacts from the beginning of the normalization of yield curves. This might also be the reason why investors are somewhat nervous and reacting quickly on any news that may impact the current market environment negatively. That said, the election of Donald Trump as the next U.S. president had a positive

As a market observer it is always a topic of interest to see whether European ETF investors have chased performance over the course of a calendar year. Since ETFs can be used as trading tools, such an analysis can highlight fund flow trends which may have been overlooked otherwise. That said, this article sheds a light on the fund flows within the 20 best- and worst-performing Lipper classifications in the European ETF industry over the course of 2024 (all calculations in EUR). First of all, one may realize by looking at chart 1 that neither the classification Equity U.S. (13)

Since 2024 was a record year with regard to the estimated net inflows in ETFs in Europe, it seems to be logical that ETF promoters launched an increasing number of new ETFs to profit even more from the trend toward ETFs. To check if this assumption is true, we analyzed the number of newly launched primary share classes (portfolios) over the course of 2024, as well as the number of merged or liquidated share classes. The European ETF industry launched 240 new ETFs (primary share classes) over the course of 2024. This marks the second highest number of ETF launches

The European fund industry enjoyed inflows over the course of December 2024. These inflows occurred in a mainly positive market environment. While most equity markets were on the rise despite the high valuations of the market leaders over the course of the month, some bond segments faced the impacts from rising rates as yield curves have somewhat started to normalize. This might also be the reason why investors are somewhat nervous and reacting quickly on any news that may impact the current market environment negatively. That said, the election of Donald Trump as the next U.S. president had a positive