Key Takeaways
- Equities remain the engine of ETF growth in Europe, confirming passive equity exposure as the dominant investment vehicle.
- Investors are actively diversifying away from US concentration risk, favoring global, emerging markets and equal-weight strategies.
- The ETF market is maturing: Flows are strong and broad-based, but leadership is concentrated, and active ETFs—while growing—remain a small share.
The European ETF market has had the strongest start to a year in its almost three-decade history. Flows in February totaled EUR 49.7 billion, almost equaling EUR 49.8 billion in January, and with one more month to go, this already surpasses the EUR 91.3 billion netted in the first quarter of 2025. Total assets are just shy of the EUR 3 trillion mark.
Equity remains the favored asset class for ETF investors in Europe. This is in keeping with the trend of the past four years, whereby low-cost passive products have become the default option to gain exposure to stock markets. Flows into equity ETFs totaled EUR 41.0 billion in February, up from EUR 36.9 billion in January.
In comparison, flows into bond ETFs amounted to EUR 5.2 billion in February, down from EUR 8.8 billion in January. Meanwhile, so far in 2026, precious metals ETCs— mostly gold—have shed EUR 4.3 billion.
Which Equity Markets Were in Favor?
As in 2025, European investors have continued to favor global, emerging market and European equity exposures, while those wanting a bit of US-only equity exposure have prioritized the equal-weighted index approach to minimize the risk of excessive stock concentration. But overall, the cautious approach to US equity remains in place. In February, ETFs in the US large-cap growth category, where products tracking the Nasdaq 100 index sit, saw outflows of EUR 1.1 billion.
What About Fixed Income?
The cautious approach to US dollar exposure played out here too. For example, we saw this in the ongoing interest in emerging-markets bonds, particularly local currency denominated.
Which Provider Took in the Most?
iShares is clearly in the lead, with close to EUR 16.9 billion in February and EUR 35.1 billion in the first two months of the year. Amundi and Xtrackers, the second and third largest providers respectively, also did well. Meanwhile, Invesco saw EUR 1 billion of outflows in February, mostly from its gold ETC and several US equity ETFs.
What About Active ETFs?
Active ETFs are still a niche market but nonetheless growing, at a slower pace so far in 2026 than in 2025. Flows into active ETFs in the first two months of 2026, at EUR 5.1 billion, represented 5.3% of all money invested in the European ETF market. This is below the average of 7.4% in 2025. JP Morgan was the top-gathering active ETF provider in February. But competition has heated up. iShares and Goldman Sachs are ahead of JP Morgan in total inflows to active ETFs the first two months of the year.
