The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has published new datasets and staff analyses examining developments across the U.S. investment fund landscape, including the rapid growth of active exchange-traded funds, fee outcomes following fund mergers, and updated statistics covering several categories of regulated market participants.
The Commission noted that the U.S. ETF market now includes more than 3,600 exchange-traded funds with assets exceeding $10 trillion.
The data was released by the Commission’s Division of Economic and Risk Analysis (DERA) and summarized in an SEC press release issued in early February.
Expansion of the active ETF market
According to a DERA staff report titled The Fast-Growing Market of Active ETFs, actively managed exchange-traded funds have expanded significantly in both number and assets over recent years.
The report shows that the number of active ETF series has grown sharply, narrowing the gap with passive ETFs. As of the most recent data analyzed, the U.S. market included more than 1,500 active ETF series, compared with fewer than 2,000 passive ETF series, reflecting a structural shift in the ETF landscape.
DERA’s analysis also documents substantial growth in assets under management for active ETFs, which increased from a relatively small base in the early 2020s to several hundred billion dollars by the end of 2024. The report provides descriptive statistics on portfolio holdings, turnover, and management practices, illustrating how active strategies are increasingly being deployed within the ETF wrapper.
The SEC emphasized that the publication is intended to improve transparency and provide market participants and policymakers with a clearer view of structural trends in the ETF market.
Fund mergers and post-merger fee outcomes
In a separate staff paper titled When Funds Merge: What Happens to Fees?, DERA analyzed approximately 1,800 U.S. mutual fund and ETF mergers over the 2011–2023 period to assess how fees change following consolidation events.
The analysis examines expense ratios, management fees, and Rule 12b-1 fees before and after mergers, focusing on acquiring funds. According to the report, mergers have historically been associated, on average, with reductions in fees for acquiring funds, though outcomes vary across products and merger structures.
The SEC noted that the analysis is descriptive in nature and does not assess the motivations behind individual mergers or predict future fee behavior. Instead, the dataset provides an empirical reference point for understanding how consolidation has affected investor costs in the fund industry.
Updated statistics on regulated market participants
In addition to the ETF and fund merger analyses, the SEC released updated statistics and interactive data visualizations covering several categories of regulated entities, including municipal advisors, transfer agents, and security-based swap dealers.
The updated datasets are published through the SEC’s statistics and data visualization portal and include time-series data, geographic breakdowns, and other standardized metrics designed to support public access to market structure information.
According to the Commission, the updates form part of an ongoing effort to improve the availability and usability of regulatory data for researchers, market participants, and the public.
Regulatory context
The SEC stated that the publication of the datasets and staff analyses does not signal new rulemaking, supervisory initiatives, or enforcement actions. DERA regularly produces economic and statistical research to inform the Commission’s regulatory responsibilities and to enhance transparency around market structure and industry trends.
The release of updated ETF, fund merger, and market participant data follows earlier SEC efforts to expand public access to standardized regulatory statistics.
Broader implications
While the data does not introduce new regulatory requirements, it provides additional context for ongoing discussions around fund structure, competition, and investor costs in U.S. markets.
For asset managers, legal advisers, and compliance professionals, the datasets offer a detailed, regulator-produced reference on how active ETFs and fund consolidation have evolved within the existing regulatory framework, based on empirical analysis rather than market commentary.
