GLOBAL - Almost two-thirds of all assets in exchange-traded funds (ETFs) are held in the 100 biggest vehicles, new data by BlackRock has revealed.

Additionally, the asset manager’s global ETF research and implementation strategy team revealed that $1trn (€735bn) in assets alone were harboured in ETFs and exchange-traded products based in the United States.

In its ETF Landscape Industry review for November, BlackRock also said that its own ETF vehicle iShares claimed the biggest share of the market, with 486 out of 2,422 products and assets close to $550bn, almost 45% of the market.

A distant second with almost 14% market share came State Street Global Advisors with $171bn in assets, followed by Vanguard. In total, the 133 vehicles provided by these three companies accounted for 70% of the market, with 63% of assets held in the top 100 ETFs.

Over half of institutional investors surveyed by BlackRock said they expected their use of ETFs to increase over the next three years, with one in five saying their asset allocation to the product would grow by as much as 10% in the timeframe.

The company also called for investors to agree to a clear definition of what constitutes an ETF, saying that some products on offer did not offer real-time net asset value indicators, with products that were not even funds claiming to be ETFs.

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