JPMorgan Gains Ground as BlackRock’s Grip on ETF Market Loosens

A stellar year for JPMorgan Asset Management is proving to be an unusually tepid one for the world’s largest asset manager BlackRock Inc., shaking up the leaderboard in the $7.6 trillion US exchange-traded fund industry.

JPMorgan has raked in nearly $24 billion across its 56 US funds so far this year, which accounts for 9% of overall ETF flows in 2023, according to data compiled by Bloomberg Intelligence. That’s on pace to be a record haul for the bank’s ETF lineup and its highest share ever.

Meanwhile, BlackRock — the largest ETF issuer — has attracted $39 billion across its 408 ETFs so far this year. That works out to 15% of the industry’s $263 billion year-to-date inflows, on track to be BlackRock’s lowest share since 1999.

While BlackRock’s $2.5 trillion US franchise still dwarfs everyone except for Vanguard Group Inc. in the ETF industry, JPMorgan is one of several asset managers challenging that duopoly on inflows. That’s largely because investors have been increasingly seeking actively managed strategies as the Federal Reserve undertook its most aggressive tightening campaign in decades.

The demand for such strategies has been a boon for the likes of the $29 billion JPMorgan Equity Premium Income ETF (ticker JEPI), which beat out the $24 billion JPMorgan Ultra-Short Income ETF (JPST) this year as the largest active fund.

“JPMorgan has built a franchise out of JPST and JEPI — and for good reasons, they’re both big winners with advisers making real allocations, not chasing the hot dot,” said Dave Nadig, financial futurist at data provider VettaFi. “BlackRock will, of course, be a near default solution for many people’s core beta exposure, but we’re in a big pendulum swing — particularly in bonds, but increasingly in equities — where active has caught a bid.”

JPMorgan Unusually Close to BlackRock in 2023