Detlef Glow, head of Lipper EMEA Research at Refinitiv, has published the Refinitiv Lipper ‘European ETF Industry Review: 2022’ commenting that 2022 was a remarkable year for investors around the globe.
“Some may call it a year for the history books,” Glow writes. “Major economic and geopolitical headwinds resulted in falling equity and fixed income markets around the globe.
In the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, investors were concerned about the still-disrupted delivery chains and increasing inflation rates when the year 2022 started.
“All these concerns became overshadowed by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine since this meant that investors had to rewrite their playbook for the year. The war in Ukraine led to increasing prices for energy and food, which fuelled the already increasing inflation rates. As a result, central banks around the globe had to act even harder to fight inflation.
“Within this environment it was somewhat surprising that the European ETF industry enjoyed inflows over the course of 2022. That said, these inflows repeated a trend which we have witnessed over the course of other rough market periods.”
ETF promoters in Europe experienced estimated net inflows of EUR80.2 billion for 2022 according to the report, which meant that assets under management in the European ETF industry stood at EUR1,242.2 billion) at the end of December 2022.
Some 6.18 per cent of the assets under management were invested in ESG-related ETFs, the firm says and Equity ETFs (+EUR51.1 billion) posted the highest estimated net inflows in the European ETF industry for 2022.
The best-selling Lipper global classification for 2022 was Equity Global (+EUR27.2 billion), followed by Bond USD Government (+EUR18.4 billion) and Equity U.S. (+EUR12.2 billion).
iShares was the best-selling ETF promoter in Europe for 2022 (+EUR44.0 billion), ahead of Amundi ETF (+EUR11.6 billion) and SPDR (+EUR5.3 billion).
The ETF promoters in Europe launched 374 new products (all share classes) and Total Expense Ratios (TERs) for all asset types stood on the same level as at the end of 2021.