For European asset managers, the US ETF market is more than a larger, faster-moving cousin. It is increasingly a preview of where product development, investor demand and competitive pressure may be heading next. That is the lens through which Josh Jacobs, chief commercial officer at fund administrator U.S. Bank, reads the current moment. In his view, the most important story is not simply that the US market keeps growing, but that the ETF wrapper is being stretched into areas that should matter to European issuers too: active management, specialist themes, derivatives-based outcomes and more efficient routes to market.
ETF growth in the US is predictably most seen in active ETFs. But Jacobs is equally clear that investor appetite does not stop there. He highlights thematic ETFs – successful for offering investors a clear, tradable way to express a specific market view.
Specialist themes such as “memory” (computer memory chips), artificial intelligence and other narrow segments of the equity market as examples of where ETFs are finding traction. “The thematic ETFs are gathering assets because it provides ways for investors to access pools of securities that they may not have been able to bundle together previously,” he says. The lesson is that the wrapper can make complex exposures easier to understand, distribute and trade across a broader investor base.
The same logic, he suggests, applies to derivatives-based strategies. In the US, investors are increasingly using ETFs not only for market exposure but also for hedging, income generation and leverage, Jacobs says. What is notable is that these approaches are appearing in a regulated, exchange-traded format that is far easier for a wider pool of investors to access.
For younger investors in particular, he sees the product increasingly acting as the default investment vehicle, whether the end exposure is passive, active or linked to a more targeted theme.
That generational point matters for traditional managers. Jacobs says younger investors are “much more likely to buy an ETF than a mutual fund”, a shift that is forcing active houses to think carefully about product format as well as investment capability. A manager may still have the strategy, the track record and the distribution ambition, but if it lacks an ETF offering, it risks missing a growing part of the market altogether.
For Jacobs, this is one reason the current US market feels unusually dynamic. “We’re seeing the greatest level of innovation and ETF launches of all time,” he says. He adds that last year U.S. Bank partnered with issuers to launch more than 500 ETFs in 2025 and is on pace to exceed that in 2026.
Rules, speed and the active shift
Crucially, Jacobs does not describe the US innovation wave as a regulatory free-for-all. On the contrary, he argues that the framework has become more efficient precisely because the rules are clearer. He points to Rule 6c-11 as a key development, saying it has created a more standardised route to market for issuers that comply with the required criteria and governance expectations. For European firms, the contrast is instructive. The Ucits structure offers its own strengths, particularly around investor protection and portability, but product development across Europe can still involve more jurisdictional complexity, more distribution friction and a less uniform path to launch.
While timelines still vary depending on the product and its complexity, he says Rule 6c-11 criteria mean an ETF can be launched in “75 to 90 days” in many cases. In a crowded market, speed to market can determine whether a product captures demand early or arrives after the opportunity has passed.
That same clarity also helps smaller issuers, who can still enter the market, provided they work within the established framework.
Jacobs also sees the rise of active ETFs as more than a passing fashion. The pace of innovation is expanding beyond stock-picking and to products that actively manage options and other derivative exposures.
This is relevant to Europe, where many traditional houses are perhaps still working out how much of their active capability should migrate into an ETF format. The US experience suggests the question is no longer whether active fits the wrapper, but how far the wrapper can be used to deliver genuinely differentiated active outcomes.
Favourable tax treatment has also driven conversions of separately managed accounts into the ETF structure, highlighting again how managers with established assets in adjacent formats are looking for efficient ways to reposition those strategies into ETFs rather than building from zero.
Europe in the frame
Jacobs says US managers are in many cases looking to extend successful domestic strategies overseas. “We’re seeing large US asset managers taking successful strategies that are distributed in the US and looking to launch similar products in Europe,” he says. That matters for European incumbents. Europe is no longer just building its own ETF market; it is competing in a field that increasingly includes US firms bringing scale, track records and product development momentum with them.
The practical challenge, of course, is the region’s fragmented legal, tax and distribution landscape. Listing venues, passporting mechanics, local investor preferences and platform access all shape outcomes in ways that differ from the US. But that complexity also points to the opportunity for managers that can localise effectively.
“When they go to a new jurisdiction, [managers] require incremental education on the regulatory framework,” he says. That is where providers with cross-border experience can play a
role in helping issuers understand what to expect.
For European investors and issuers alike, the broader conclusion is that the ETF is becoming a more versatile global delivery mechanism. But the strategic point for firms is that the competitive gap will increasingly be shaped not just by investment skill, but by wrapper choice, launch discipline and distribution execution. For Europe’s fund industry, the US market is a signal of how quickly the centre of gravity can shift when the ETF becomes the format through which innovation is delivered.
