Given the current economic situation around the globe it was no surprise that the European fund industry faced declining assets under management over the course of the year 2022 so far, as the geopolitical situation in Europe, the still ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, disrupted delivery chains, increasing inflation, and interest rate hikes put some pressure on the securities markets. Within this environment, the assets under management in the European fund industry decreased from €15.3 tr (as of December 31, 2021) to €13.3 tr at the end of Q3 2022. While ETFs held €1.2 tr, or 9.23% of the assets under management

It was not surprising that May 2022 was in general a negative month for the European fund industry given the geopolitical situation in Europe, the still ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, disrupted delivery chains, and the sluggish market environment. That said, the promoters of mutual funds (-€32.3 bn) faced outflows, while the promoters of ETFs (+€2.5 bn) enjoyed inflows. Within this market environment and given the economic uncertainties, one would expect that European investors sold long-term funds and bought money market products. Therefore, it is somewhat surprising that European investors further sold money market products (-€6.5 bn) over the course of May

Even as 2020 was a tough year, the European ETF industry seems to be in good shape as assets under management increased from €870.0 bn as of December 31, 2019 to €874.3 bn at the end of October 2020. An increase in assets under management of €4.3 bn (+0.50%) year to date might look small for a growth industry, but these developments were driven by the performance of the underlying markets (-€46.2 bn). Meanwhile, the industry enjoyed healthy estimated net sales of €50.5 bn. Graph 1: Assets Under Management in the European ETF Industry (in bn EUR) Source: Refinitiv Lipper

In line with the general global trend regarding fund flows, the South African fund industry enjoyed estimated net inflows of $71 bn over the course of the first nine months of 2020. These inflows were kind of a surprise since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic and the global lockdowns of economies led to a massive drawdown on the equity markets during Q1 2020. This was countered, however, by very large cushioning packages of governments and quantitative easing programs of central banks around the globe. Nevertheless, the first nine months of 2020 was a tough time for the South African