Image Source: Pixabay

It is common sense that the European ETF industry is quite concentrated at the promoter level (Please see my latest market analysis on the concentration of the assets under management on promoter level for more information), but is this different in the U.S., the largest ETF market globally?

Graph 1: Assets Under Management – June 30, 2025 (in bn USD)

Source: LSEG Lipper

While the European ETF industry held $2.58 trillion in assets under management (AUM) at the end of June 2025, the U.S. ETF industry held $11.57 trillion in AUM. This means the U.S. ETF industry is roughly 4.5 times the size of the European ETF industry when it comes to assets under management. This ratio gets even higher when it comes to the number of ETF promoters. While there were 418 ETF promoters active in the U.S. at the end of June, there were “only” 63 ETF promoters with at least one ETF registered for sale active in Europe. This means that the number of ETF promoters competing for the money of investors is 6.6 times higher in the U.S. than in Europe.

Graph 2: Number of ETF Promoters (June 30, 2025)

Source: LSEG Lipper

When it comes to the number of instruments listed in the regions, the gap becomes much smaller since there were 4,300 instruments (all share classes) listed in Europe and 4,335 in the U.S. This comparison obviously lacks the fact that the European ETF industry uses much more “convenience share classes” to meet the needs of investors. In fact, there are only 2,143 different ETFs registered for sales in Europe, compared to 4,266 in the U.S., hence the number of ETFs in the U.S. is roughly twice the number of ETFs in Europe. Therefore, it is not surprising that the average AUM of the ETFs in the U.S. ($2.71 billion) is more than twice the average size of the ETFs in Europe ($1.20 billion). As always, the average numbers are misleading, since there were only 438 ETFs in Europe which held more than $1.0 billion in AUM at the end of June 2025, while 818 ETFs in the U.S. held at least $1.0 billion in AUM each (Please read my semi-annual reviews of the U.S. and European ETF industry for more information on this topic).

The wider choice of products and promoters may lead one to assume that the market concentration at the promoter level must be much lower in the U.S. than in Europe. This assumption is not true, since the market share of the 10 largest ETF promoters by AUM in the U.S. (90.10%) is quite similar to the market share of the 10 largest ETF promoters in Europe (93.46%). Meanwhile, the largest ETF promoter in Europe (iShares – market share 42.75% of the overall AUM) is dominating the table of the 10 largest ETF promoters in Europe by a wide margin, the race is much closer in the U.S. since the number one provider (iShares – market share 30.16% of the overall AUM) is closely followed by the number two (Vanguard – market share 28.85%).

Graph 3: Market Share of the 10 Largest ETF Promoters vs. the Rest of the Industry (June 30, 2025)

Source: LSEG Lipper

When it comes to this, it can be concluded that the assets under management in Europe and the U.S. are highly concentrated at the promoter level. Nevertheless, the competition between large and small promoters on both sides of the Atlantic seems intact, since prices (management fees) have come down over time and may have hit rock bottom in some segments of the market. In addition, it can be said that the tracking quality of passive ETFs is high, which means investors get the returns for which they pay.

It is noteworthy that there are much more promoters of actively managed ETFs active in the U.S., hence investors have more choices for their portfolios when it comes to active products. This trend has only started in Europe, and it is to be expected that a high number of promoters will enter the European ETF industry within the next 24 months. This may lead to somewhat lower concentration of assets under management at the promoter level, as some of the new promoters might be able to gather significant assets under management.

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