Assets in actively managed ETFs top $1 trillion worldwide

Assets in actively managed exchange-traded funds (ETFs) worldwide hit a record $1 trillion at the end of August, according to data provider ETFGI, boosted by easier regulations and a wave of product innovation.

Active ETFs seek to outperform the indexes they are benchmarked to, including the S&P 500, the Nasdaq 100 and the Russell 1000 Growth Index. Bear Stearns launched the first active ETF in 2008.

While they make up just 7.0 per cent of all global ETFs, active ETFs have accounted for 30 per cent of all inflows into the funds as a whole for the last several years, Matthew Bartolini, head of SPDR Americas Research at State Street Research, told Reuters in the latest episode of Inside ETFs.

A key growth catalyst, analysts said, was the 2019 regulation popularly known as the ‘ETF rule’, which streamlined the complex process of winning approval for active ETFs from the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Assets in the active ETF category have grown about 10-fold since 2019, according to data from ETF.com.

Growth has continued this year. As of Aug 31, active ETF assets soared 42 per cent, data from ETFGI showed.

The more relaxed regulations have also fueled innovation, Bartolini said, encouraging issuers to take novel approaches to products as they vie for investor dollars.

Active ETFs run the gamut from the plain vanilla, such as the BlackRock Large Cap Value ETF to more niche offerings, like the AdvisorShares Vice ETF, which invests in shares of companies involved in the alcohol, tobacco and cannabis industries.

“These regulatory rule changes have actually accelerated some of the more novel approaches that ETF issuers can bring to the marketplace,” Bartolini said.

Active ETFs include products that have been wildly volatile, such as Ark Innovation ETF, which soared 152 per cent in 2020, only to slump 23 per cent the following year.