The development and future of European active exchange-traded funds

During the past decades, exchange-traded funds have become more and more popular. We will focus more specifically on the European active exchange-traded funds. The European market is fragmented, mainly traded over-the-counter, and dominated by institutional investors. In 2018, MiFID II and PRIIPs were implemented with major improvements in transparency and new trade disclosure requirements. These new regulations challenge the traditional European exchange-traded fund market characteristics. We will show that smart beta exchange-traded funds are a potential threat for active exchange-traded funds since they pursue the same objective to outperform the market. Even if active exchange-traded funds generally outperform their index, we will see new trends that could shape the future of this market, especially with the rise of new digital technologies. Finally, we will analyze the new non-transparent active exchange-traded funds, and we will examine its possibilities for a potential arrival on the European market.