There were 3.478 products listed in the Lipper database at the end of December 2022. 1.856 of the products were so-called primary share classes which represent the ETF portfolio, while 1.622 were so-called convenience share classes—for example, sub-share classes of an ETF portfolio which have an additional feature compared to the primary share class such as a denomination in a different currency or a currency hedge, etc.

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Since the primary share class does represent the respective ETF, the following analysis is based on primaries only.

The vast majority of the ETFs in Europe are equity ETFs (1,295), followed by bond ETFs (429), commodities ETFs (52), alternative UCITS ETFs (51), mixed-assets ETFs (17), money market ETFs (11), and “other” ETFs (1).

Graph: Market Share of ETFs (Primary Share Classes) by Asset Type (December 31, 2022)

Source: Refinitiv Lipper

Since the classification of fund products in Europe by the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR) has become a subject of change after the release of the regulatory technical standards (RTS) in the fourth quarter 2022, one might be curious if there are any ETFs left under article 9 of SFDR.

That said, the majority of ETFs in the European ETF industry (1,275) were classified under article 6, while 501 ETFs were classified under article 8, and 62 under article 9 of the SFDR. The remaining 18 ETFs had no classification under SFDR, which was to be expected since this report covers all ETFs in Europe and ETFs which are not registered for sale in the EU won’t need to comply with the SFDR.

By looking at these numbers, one needs to bear in mind that the number of ETFs which have been classified as article 9 compliant products was much higher prior to the release of the RTS, since the ETF promoters had to reclassify a large number of ETFs as the RTS presented much stricter sustainability criteria to which funds and ETFs have to comply to be assigned as article 8 or 9 compliant products.

Graph: Market Share of ETFs (Primary Share Classes) by SFDR (December 31, 2022)

Source: Refinitiv Lipper

ETF Launches and Closures Over the Course of 2022

Since 2022 was another successful year for the European ETF industry, it was not surprising that the overall number of ETFs available to European investors was rising over the course of 2022.

In more detail, European ETF promoters launched 374 new products (all share classes) over the course of 2022, while 41 ETFs were merged or liquidated. 184 of the 374 new products were primary share classes, while the other 190 were convenience share classes. Conversely, 29 primary share classes and 12 convenience share classes have been closed over the course of 2022.

To use the same methodology for the overall number of ETFs, the following analysis is based on primary share classes only.

The majority of these ETF launches were equity ETFs (150), followed by bond ETFs (33), while one new ETF was an alternative UCITS ETF.

Graph: ETF Launches 2022 by Product Type

Source: Refinitiv Lipper

With regards to classifications by SFDR, only 19 of the new launched ETFs were classified as article 9 compliant, while the vast majority of the ETFs launched over the course of 2022 (116) were classified as compliant to article 8 of the SFDR.

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