Lipper's EMEA research head: Blaming ETFs has become a sport for active managers

Should focus on delivering outperformance

Detlef Glow, head of EMEA research at Thomson Reuters Lipper, has said active managers need to start proving performance comparisons wrong by delivering outperformance instead of "moaning" about the risks of ETFs.

In a research note, Glow (pictured) said he could understand the reason behind investors moving away from active management following the performance of the average active manager over the past 20 years. The global ETF and ETP industry passed the $5trn mark in January, according to data from research and consultancy firm ETFGI, highlighting the popularity of passive products in recent years. "It seems like blaming ETFs has become kind of a new sport for active asset managers," Glow said: "While observing the discussion around ETFs, especially in Europe, I become a bit concerned that t...