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

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

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

Within the current market environment in the European ETF industry where the estimated net inflows are at a record high level and assets under management (AUM) are moving from one all-time-high to the next, one may think that it must be easy for ETF promoters to participate from the trend toward ETFs. Frankly speaking, nothing could be farther from the truth than such a statement. The European ETF industry is highly concentrated at the assets under management and the fund flows level. This means that the vast majority of assets are held by a small number of ETF promoters. The

Since the assets under management in the global ETF industry are highly concentrated on different levels (domicile, promoter, classification) it is not surprising that the assets under management are also highly concentrated on the custodial level. The high concentration of the assets under custody might raise concerns about the competition between the different custodians. With regard to this, I would agree that a high concentration of assets at a single company in the ETF ecosystem/value chain should raise the attention of market observers and authorities since such a situation can cause some market and/or systemic risk.   Chart 1: ETF

The first nine months of 2024 were a period with strong inflows for the European ETF industry. These inflows occurred in a positive market environment. Equity markets were rising further despite the high valuations of the market leaders. This might also be the reason why investors are somewhat nervous and reacting quite fast on any news that may impact the current market environment negatively. An example of this was the short-term market turmoil in August when investors had to unwind their yen-based carry trades after the yen increased sharply in value compared to the U.S. dollar. This is not only

August 2024 was another month with strong inflows for the European ETF industry. These inflows occurred in a positive market environment. Nevertheless, equity markets looked somewhat vulnerable given the high valuations of the market leaders. With regard to this, it is not surprising that investors are nervous and reacting quite fast on any news that may impact the current market environment negatively. This is not only true for economic news, as the geopolitical tensions in the Middle East, especially the developments around the Red Sea, are seen as a risk for the general economic growth in Western countries since a

At the headline level, the European fund industry suffered overall estimated net outflows of €42.9 bn from equity products between January 1, 2022, and June 30, 2024. Even as this number does not sound too bad, taking the market turmoil over the course of the year 2022 into consideration, a view on the flows by product type unveils a fund flow trend which may hurt the future balance sheets of at least some of the promoters of active managed equity funds. A detailed view of the fund flow trends for equity products between January 1, 2022, and June 30, 2024,

July 2024 was another successful month for the European ETF industry since ETFs registered for sales in Europe enjoyed strong estimated net inflows (+€20.9 bn) over the course of the month. These flows were way above the rolling 12-month average (€16.2 bn), which might be seen as a sign of strength of the trend toward ETFs in Europe. If the European ETF can maintain the current level of inflows, the overall inflows for the year 2024 will reach a new all-time high with estimated net inflows between €180.0 bn and €210.0 bn. The inflows for July were driven by equity