November 2025 was another month with healthy inflows for the global ETF industry.
These inflows occurred in a month marked by pivotal economic and geopolitical developments, with central banks opting for caution amid mixed global signals.
The Bank of England set the tone early in the month, voting narrowly to keep its benchmark rate at 4%. The 5–4 decision reflected growing pressure for cuts, but Governor Andrew Bailey emphasized prudence ahead of fiscal announcements. Similarly, the European Central Bank held rates steady, citing inflation stabilizing near its 2% target. ECB President Christine Lagarde signaled that the current pause remains appropriate given subdued growth and easing price pressures. In Asia, the Bank of Japan maintained its policy rate at 0.50%, following its July hike, and hinted that further adjustments would be considered only after December’s review.
Global growth forecasts offered a silver lining. S&P Global revised its 2025 outlook upward to 2.7%, buoyed by resilient U.S. manufacturing data and stronger-than-expected performance in China and Japan. Still, policymakers remained wary of geopolitical risks.
Equity markets reflected the uneasy climate with heightened volatility, as investors balanced cooling inflation against fragile global demand. Bond markets, meanwhile, saw yields edge lower across major economies, signaling expectations of eventual rate cuts and a flight to safety amid geopolitical tensions.
Contributing to the turbulence, the U.S. endured its longest-ever government shutdown, which lasted 43 days—from October 1 to November 12—and delayed economic data releases and disrupted federal services, which weighed on both equity sentiment and bond yields.
On the diplomatic front, the Middle East saw tentative progress. A UN-brokered ceasefire in Gaza held through the month, while Houthi forces temporarily suspended attacks in the Red Sea, easing concerns over shipping routes. Meanwhile, Europe intensified efforts to revive peace talks in Ukraine, with proposals for security guarantees gaining traction.
Energy markets also drew attention as OPEC+ reaffirmed its commitment to production discipline during its late-November meeting, signaling stability in oil prices heading into 2026.
In sum, November underscored a global balancing act: central banks prioritizing stability, economies showing resilience, and geopolitical tensions offering glimpses of de-escalation. Whether this cautious optimism holds will depend on inflation trends, fiscal policies, and the durability of fragile ceasefires.
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 €18,143.6 bn as of October 31, 2025, to €18,333.2 bn at the end of November). At a closer look, the increase in assets under management of €185.9 bn for November was driven by estimated net inflows (+€200.0 bn), while the performance of the underlying markets (-€14.3 bn) was a burden 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 ($14,006.8 bn) held the majority of assets, followed by bond ETFs ($3,111.9 bn), alternatives ETFs ($606.2 bn), commodities ETFs ($417.7 bn), money market ETFs ($99.3 bn), mixed-assets ETFs ($71.1 bn), and “other” ETFs ($20.3 bn).
Within the current market environment, it is not surprising that the assets under management for all asset types with the exception of alternatives and “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, November 30, 2025
Source: LSEG Lipper
ETF Flows by Asset Type
The global ETF industry enjoyed healthy estimated net inflows (+$200.2 bn) over the course of November despite the positive but still somewhat fragile environment in the equity markets. These inflows drove the overall inflows in ETFs up to $1,798.8 bn for the year 2025 so far.
Inflows to the global ETF industry for November were driven by equity ETFs (+$130.1 bn), followed by bond ETFs (+$52.7 bn), alternatives ETFs (+$7.9 bn), commodities ETFs (+$3.5 bn), money market ETFs (+$3.5 bn), mixed-assets ETFs (+$2.2 bn), and “other” ETFs (+$0.4 bn).
Graph 2: Estimated Net Sales by Asset Type, November 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 November 2025, the global ETF market was split into 302 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 November. The highest assets under management at the end of November were held by funds classified as Equity U.S. ($6,594.2 bn), followed by Equity Global ex U.S. ($1,067.3 bn), Equity U.S. Small & Mid Cap ($989.1 bn), Equity Global ($789.2 bn), and Equity Japan ($745.4 bn). These five peer groups accounted for $10,185.3 bn, or 55.56%, of the overall assets under management in the global ETF industry, while the 10-top classifications by assets under management accounted for $12,682.9 bn, or 69.18%, of the overall assets under management.
Overall, 16 of the 302 peer groups each accounted for more than 1% of assets under management. In total, these 16 peer groups accounted for $14,303.5 bn, or 78.17%, of the overall assets under management.
Graph 3: Ten Largest Lipper Global Classifications by Assets Under Management, November 30, 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, November 30, 2025 (USD Billions)
Source: LSEG Lipper
ETF Flows by Lipper Global Classifications
The net inflows of the 10 best-selling Lipper classifications accounted for $143.7 bn. In line with the overall sales trend for November, equity peer groups (+$105.9 bn) gathered the majority of flows by asset type on the table of the 10 best-selling classifications by estimated net inflows for November 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 commodities, mixed-assets, and money market classifications missing on the table. That said, this is not surprising since commodities, 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. (+$66.4 bn) was the best-selling Lipper global classification for November. It was followed by Equity Global ex U.S. (+$12.0 bn) and Equity Global (+$11.2 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. Nevertheless, the table of the 10 best-selling classifications does show a different picture than the respective table for the U.S. ETF industry.
Graph 5: Ten Best- and Worst-Lipper Global Classifications by Estimated Net Sales, November 2025 (USD Billions)
Source: LSEG Lipper
On the other side of the table, the 10 peer groups with the highest estimated net outflows for November accounted for $17.7 bn in outflows. These outflows were significantly higher than the outflows for the previous month (-$8.6 bn).
Equity Japan (-$4.9 bn) was the classification with the highest outflows for the month. It was bettered by Alternative Cryptocurrency (-$3.7 bn), Bond USD Mortgages (-$1.7 bn), Alternative Dedicated Short Bias (-$1.7 bn), and Equity Sector Financials (-$1.5 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 211 of the 744 ETF promoters in the global ETF industry holding assets at or above $1.0 bn, accounting for overall assets under management of $18,236.0 bn. The largest ETF promoter in the global ETF industry—iShares ($5,423.6 bn)—accounted for 29.58% of the overall assets under management, ahead of the number-two promoter—Vanguard ($4,192.9 bn)—and the number-three promoter—SPDR ($1,961.2 bn).
Graph 6: The 10 Largest ETF Promoters by Assets Under Management, November 30, 2025 (USD Billions)
Source: LSEG Lipper
The 10-top promoters accounted for 79.64% of the overall assets under management in the global ETF industry. This meant, in turn, the other 734 ETF promoters registering at least one ETF for sale accounted for only 20.36% 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 November. iShares was the best-selling ETF promoter in the global ETF industry for the month (+$54.0 bn), ahead of Vanguard (+$53.7 bn) and SPDR (+$9.1 bn).
Graph 7: Ten Best-Selling ETF Promoters, November 2025 (USD Billions)
Source: LSEG Lipper
The flows of the 10 top promoters accounted for estimated net inflows of $144.3 bn. As for the overall flow trend in November, it was clear that some of the 744 promoters (177) faced estimated net outflows (-$9.9 bn in total) over the course of the month.
Assets Under Management by Region
ETFs domiciled in North America ($13,812.3 bn) held the highest assets under management in the global ETF industry at the end of November 2025. They were followed by ETFs domiciled in Europe ($2,953.7 bn), ETFs domiciled in the Asia Pacific region ($1,526.8 bn), ETFs domiciled in South and Central America ($24.5 bn), ETFs domiciled in Africa ($14.3 bn), while other domiciles held ($1.6 bn) in assets under management.
Graph 8: Assets Under Management in the Global ETF Industry by Region – November 30, 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, November 2025 (in bn USD)
Source: LSEG Lipper
As one may expect from the assets under management, ETFs domiciled in North America (+$160.5 bn) enjoyed the highest estimated net inflows for November 2025. They were followed by ETFs domiciled in Europe (+$24.9 bn), Asia Pacific (+$13.9 bn), South and Central America (+$1.1 bn), and other Regions (+$0.004 bn). Conversely, ETFs domiciled in Africa (-$0.2 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 November 2025, the U.S. was the largest single country ETF domicile ($13,258.8 bn) of the 42 ETF domiciles covered in this report, followed by Ireland ($2,148.4 bn), Japan ($706.8 bn), Canada ($553.5 bn), and Luxembourg ($539.5 bn). These five ETF domiciles account for assets under management of $17,207.0 bn, or 93.86%, of the overall assets under management in the global ETF industry.
Graph 10: Ten Largest ETF Domiciles by Assets Under Management – November 30, 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. (+$148.9 bn) was the single fund domicile with the highest estimated net inflows for November. It was followed by Ireland (+$15.7 bn), Canada (+$11.6 bn), South Korea (+$8.2 bn), and Luxembourg (+$6.9 bn).
Graph 11: The 10 ETF Domiciles with the Highest Estimated Net Inflows, November 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.
