IndexFunds.com Staff

Total Domestic ETF Assets Over $100 Billion

There are currently 281 exchange-traded funds listed around the world, with over $140 billion in assets under management, according to a new report by Boston-based indexing giant State Street Global Advisors.

The tally for ETFs that trade in the U.S. is 116 funds with nearly $104 billion in assets. Among domestic ETF managers, State Street holds the lion's share of assets with nearly $50 billion - or 48% of the total ETF market share - in 21 funds. Barclays Global Investors has over 27% of the domestic ETF market with over $28 billion spread over 81 funds

Bank of New York has over $24 billion in six funds; however, it manages two of the three largest domestic ETFs - the Nasdaq-100 (QQQ) and S&P 400 MidCap SPDRs (MDY). Bank of New York also recently introduced four BLDRS ETFs tied to ADR indexes.

The total amount of assets invested in domestic ETFs can on the surface be misleading because the largest fund - the S&P 500 SPDR (SPY) - represents nearly 40% of all domestic ETF assets, with about $41.5 billion under management. This is the oldest domestic ETF - coming to market first appears to have its benefits in this case.

The table below shows how domestic ETF providers stack up in terms of total assets under management.

Yesterday, Barclays Global Investors changed the benchmark indexes for for eight of its European sector iShares that trade overseas. The funds were originally tied to Bloomberg indexes but were switched over to FTSE benchmarks. Additionally, the expense ratios for all eight funds were reduced from 0.50% to 0.35%.

"The new FTSE European sector indices will comprise a narrower set of more liquid stocks, with no more than 30 in each index, and will be weighted by free float market capitalization," said Barclays in a statement.