Despite a “challenging” month for financial markets, September has brought “strong inflows” across the ETF market, according to LSEG (London Stock Exchange Group).
Globally, an estimated $207.3bn entered ETFs over the course of September. North America dominated ETF inflows with $156.8bn, while Europe came a distant second at $39.7bn and the Indo-Pacific an even more distant third at $9.8bn.
By domicile, the US continued to dominate, with an AUM of $16.3trn. Ireland, the next highest, reached $2.7trn while Japan reached just $877.3bn.
Equities constituted the single largest share of AUM within an ETF wrapper, occupying 79.6% of the total market, while bonds occupied 15.6%. Smaller asset classes included alternatives, commodities, and money markets, each occupying 3.3%, 2% and 0.6% respectively.
The same pattern is followed by the reported net inflows. Equity ETFs dominated, attracting inflows of $110.9bn, while bond ETFs reported $68.6bn. Alternatives, commodities, and mixed assets reported inflows of $13.6bn, $5.7bn, and $4.1bn respectively.
Taken together, September’s inflows have raised the 2026 total increase in ETF-wrapped AUM to higher levels than the entirety of 2025, itself a record.
See also: Fidelity: European investors to increase active ETF allocations despite understanding ‘gap’
LSEG also noted high asset concentration, with only 244 of the 871 ETF promoters holding assets at or above $1bn, totalling $22.7trn. Of these, the 10 largest promoters account for 77.6%, or $17.7trn, and three – iShares, Vanguard, and State Street – control a combined $13.9trn.
There are also signs that September’s inflows are reflective of an increasingly troubled economic backdrop.
The report said: “September 2026 marked a challenging month for global financial markets as investors confronted a combination of renewed geopolitical tensions, rising energy prices, persistent inflation pressures, and a more hawkish stance from major central banks.
“From the perspective of the global ETF industry, the performance of the underlying markets led, in combination with the estimated net flows, to decreasing assets under management [from $22,968.4bn as of August 31, 2026, to $22,830.7bn at the end of September 2026].
“At a closer look, the decrease in assets under management of $137.7bn for September was driven by the negative performance of the underlying markets [-$345bn], while the estimated net inflows contributed [+$207.3bn] to the assets under management.”
Not everyone has benefitted from September inflows, however. LSEG also listed the 10 smallest funds, noting that lack of interest means they “may face the risk of being closed in the near future”.
| Fund | Size ($bn) |
| Target Maturity MA EUR 2030 | 0.01 |
| Target Maturity MA EUR 2035 | 0.01 |
| Bond INR | 0.003 |
| Mixed Asset Other Aggressive | 0.003 |
| Bond PKR | 0.002 |
| Target Maturity MA EUR 2045+ | 0.002 |
| Absolute Return Other | 0.002 |
| Mixed Asset INR Balanced | 0.002 |
| Equity Malaysia Income | 0.001 |
| Equity France Sm&Md Cap | 0.001 |
