The Belgium Financial Services and Markets Authority (FSMA) published its quarterly Retail Investor Dashboard, reporting that Belgian retail investor engagement fell in the second quarter of 2025, with fewer active investors and fewer transactions across shares, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and bonds. Around 200,000 retail investors traded shares in Q2 2025, 110,000 traded ETFs and 16,000 traded bonds, all down versus the previous quarter. The quarterly fall in active ETF investors was the first since Q2 2023. First-time traders in the quarter totalled 18,000 for shares, 21,000 for ETFs and 4,000 for bonds. Transactions also declined, with just over 1.4 million share trades (around 5% lower quarter-on-quarter), about 354,000 ETF trades (almost 15% lower) and almost 25,000 bond trades (a little over 10% lower). The FSMA noted the decreases may reflect a seasonal effect and that increased reporting coverage may make figures higher than in earlier publications. The dashboard also highlights longer-run trends in 2024: about 357,000 retail investors traded shares at least once (almost 60% over 50; around a quarter under 40), with little change since 2021, while ETF participation continued to expand to around 152,000 investors, nearly triple 2020 levels, and skewed younger (almost half under 40). New-investor cohorts in both shares and ETFs are getting younger; in 2024, 68,000 investors bought shares for the first time via a Belgian broker, and first-time ETF investors rose sharply to 70,000, driven chiefly by under-40s.

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