Germany has continued to cement its position as Europe’s largest ETF market with the wrapper capturing nearly half of all fund inflows in the region in Q1.
According to a report by the German fund association BVI, ETFs attracted €20.5bn in inflows, with equity ETFs pulling in €15.8bn and bond ETFs adding another €4.4bn.
The total Germany fund industry saw €42bn inflows during the first three months of the year.
The increase in ETF inflows partly reflects a new reporting method introduced in 2025. Until the end of 2024, fund companies could only report ETFs that primarily targeted the German market. Other ETFs were generally excluded due to a lack of fund companies’ information on the distribution of national markets during ETF share issuance and redemption.
To address the widening gap between BVI-reported figures and the actual German ETF market, the association began working with central securities depository (CSD) Clearstream, while other ETF assets are held with other CSDs including Euroclear, which contribute to the German market.
While the German ETF market now stands at an estimated €600bn, not all fund companies with ETFs - regardless of BVI membership - have adopted the new method based on Clearstream's database, meaning BVI reports ETF assets of €397bn for the German market.
Due to the new method, comparisons of assets and new business with dates before 2025 are not feasible, BVI said.
Germany is Europe's largest ETF market, with a market share of fund assets standing at 25-27%.
The figures build on previous data which showed German investors have poured assets into actively managed ETFs over the past year.
According to a report from Scope Explorer, assets under management (AUM) of active ETFs distributed in Germany have increased from $26bn at the end of June 2023 to $42bn at the end of August 2024, though the share of active ETFs is little over 2%.
More broadly, the German market has emerged as a key driver of retail adoption of ETFs, largely fuelled by the growing popularity of ETF savings plans in the region.
