U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission publishes DERA reports on active ETF growth and fund merger fee changes and updates statistics on municipal advisors, transfer agents and security-based swap dealers

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s Division of Economic and Risk Analysis (DERA) has published two reports covering exchange traded funds (ETFs) and fund mergers and updated its public statistics and data visualizations for municipal advisors, transfer agents, and security-based swap dealers (SBSDs). The releases highlight rapid growth in active ETFs and evidence that mergers involving mutual funds and ETFs are generally associated with lower fees for investors in acquiring funds. One report, The Fast-Growing Market of Active ETFs, examines the characteristics of active ETFs and finds that while active ETFs represent a relatively small share of total ETF managed assets, both their number and assets have grown steadily in recent years and have outpaced passive ETF growth, with the number of active ETFs now close to the number of passive funds. The report notes that active ETFs tend to show higher levels of active management, including lower return alignment with benchmark returns, higher portfolio turnover, and greater use of derivatives, in a market that the SEC described as comprising more than 3,600 ETFs with assets exceeding USD 10 trillion. The second report, When Funds Merge: What Happens to Fees?, analyzes 2010 to 2023 data and focuses on more than 1,800 U.S. mutual fund mergers between 2011 and 2023, finding that mergers are generally associated with reductions in expense ratios, management fees, and Rule 12b-1 fees for acquiring funds, with the size and type of savings varying by fund type and merger structure. Separately, the updated statistics webpage provides interactive, downloadable time series charts, pie charts, and heat maps for the covered market participants.