The top fund here is Vanguard's VSMPX at $1.7 trillion net assets (31/3/25). Next seems to be Fidelity's FXAIX (500 Index Fund) with $597.6 billion net assets. Perhaps Vanguard's other two funds are larger than Fidelity.
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Vanguard manages ~435 funds. "As of July 2024, Vanguard has 208 U.S. funds and 215 international funds available. The firm boasts more than 50 million investors" It also has one of the largest bond funds in the world, the Vanguard Total Bond Market Index Fund (VBTLX).
It says $ 10.1 trillion AUM as per their website. But seems like $8.6 trillion per some other sources. " Vanguard's total assets under management (AUM) increased more than eightfold in the roughly two decades since 2005, reaching a value of 8.6 trillion U.S. dollars. "
Bogle created Vanguard and molded it into a place where retail and individual investors could turn to build wealth without needing the services of a broker and the expenses charged by them. His vision was low-cost investing and transparency for non-institutional investors.
According to the Vanguard Group, the company is owned by its member funds, which are owned by the fund shareholders. Thus, the fund shareholders are the owners of Vanguard
Following is an intro to Vanguard:
Blackrock, the largest asset manager has ~$11.55 trillion assets under management. "The total assets under management of BlackRock Inc. more than doubled between 2016 and 2025, reaching a value which makes them the world’s largest asset management company."
BlackRock, Inc., founded in 1988, has grown to become the world's largest asset manager. Its journey is a testament to its strategic foresight, innovative approach, and ability to adapt to the evolving financial landscape. From managing $53 billion in assets in 1994, BlackRock has seen its assets under management (AUM) surge to an astounding $11,551 billion by 2024. This remarkable growth represents a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 20%.BlackRock went public in 1999. Acquired Merrill Lynch Investment Management in 2006 and Barclays Global Investors in 2009.There are over 1,000 individual investment funds operated by Blackrock, and investors are able to purchase shares in both actively and passively managed funds.The main type of financial assets BlackRock invests in are equity securities typically in the form of stocks and shares, comprising the vast majority of the company’s portfolio. This is followed by fixed-income assets such as bonds, then cash, and alternative investments such as real estate and commodities. Over half of these assets are owned by clients residing in the Americas.
Following is Blackrock clients of whose assets they manage:
Following is the market share per Blackrock:
Between Blackrock and Vanguard, they have $21.6 trillion under management.
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Blackrock is listed with market cap of $140 billion, revenue of $21 billion. Here perhaps a look at Blackrock's shareholders:
According to the data from MarketBeat as of 18 February 2025, 80.69% of BLK shares were owned by institutional investors – including institutions such as Merill Lynch, which merged with BlackRock in 2006. This means that over half of the Blackrock Inc shareholders are investment firms and asset managers, similar to BlackRock, which hold shares on behalf of their clients.According to data compiled by WallStreetZen as of 19 February 2025:
Vanguard group owns 8.64% - largest shareholder
State Street Corp owns 4.07%
Temasek Holdings owns 3.29%
Charles Schwab Invesement Management owns 2.22%
Geode Capital management owns 1.94%
Laurence D. Fink is the co-founder, Chairman, and CEO of BlackRock – and its largest individual shareholder as of 19 February 2025, with 520,124 shares – although, the firm remains primarily owned by institutional investors.
Since establishing the business in 1988, Fink has overseen BlackRock’s growth into the world’s largest asset manager,
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Following from 2017 news clip when between them they managed $11 trillion.
Investors from individuals to large institutions such as pension and hedge funds have flocked to this duo, won over in part by their low-cost funds and breadth of offerings. The proliferation of exchange-traded funds is also supercharging these firms and will likely continue to do so.
None other than Vanguard founder Jack Bogle, widely regarded as the father of the index fund, is raising the prospect that too much money is in too few hands, with BlackRock, Vanguard and State Street Corp. together owning significant stakes in the biggest U.S. companies.
"That’s about 20 percent owned by this oligopoly of three," Bogle said at a Nov. 28 appearance at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. "It is too bad that there aren’t more people in the index-fund business.”
While bigger may be better for the fund giants, passive funds may be blurring the inherent value of securities, implied in a company’s earnings or cash flow. The argument goes like this: The number of indexes now outstrips U.S. stocks, with the eruption of passive funds driving demand for securities within these benchmarks, rather than for the broader universe of stocks and bonds. That could inflate or depress the price of these securities versus similar un-indexed assets, which may create bubbles and volatile price movements.
Another concern is that without the prospect of being part of an index, fewer small or mid-sized companies have an incentive to go public, according to Larry Tabb, founder of Tabb Group LLC, a New York-based firm that analyzes the structure of financial markets. That’s because their stock risks underperforming without the inclusion in an index or an ETF, he said. Benchmarks are governed by rules or a methodology for selection and some require that a security has a certain size or liquidity for inclusion.
Roughly 37 percent of assets in U.S.-domiciled equity funds are managed passively, up from 19 percent in 2009, according to Savita Subramanian at Bank of America Corp. By contrast, in Japan, nearly 70 percent of domestically focused equity funds are passively managed, suggesting the U.S. can stomach more indexing before market efficiency suffers.
The firms are among the biggest holders of some of the world’s largest companies across a range of industries including Google parent Alphabet Inc.and Facebook Inc. in technology, and lenders like Wells Fargo & Co.
In the U.S., both companies supported or didn’t oppose 96 percent of management resolutions on board directors in the year ended June 30, according to their own reports.
That’s making regulators uneasy, with SEC Commissioner Kara Stein asking in February: “Does ownership concentration affect the willingness of companies to compete?”
“As BlackRock and Vanguard grow, and as money flows from active to large passive investors, their percentage share of every firm increases,” said Jose Azar in an interview. “If they cross the 10 percent threshold, I think for many people that would make it clearer that the growth of large asset managers could create serious concerns for competition in many industries.”
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The next two players are Fidelity ($4.5 trillion) and State Street Advisors ($4.1 trillion).
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A note on ETF.
Currently ~$15 trillion market representing <3% of global fixed income and <9% of global equities.
For reference, following are the global Equity markets ($115 trillion) and global fixed income markets ($ 141 trillion):
Perhaps here, a comparison of 10 years 2013 => 2023
The rates market here perhaps includes the fixed income market. As per chart following (the non OTC portion maybe?)
Fixed Income is also included in the Credit markets in the quadrillion pie: From corporate bonds to credit derivatives (??), to structured finance, syndicated loans, the market has tripled in size in 5-6 years.
Of the corporate bonds, $18 trillion is those issued by Financials and $22 trillion by non-financials.
Perhaps here worth noting that the Credit Derivatives market is at 8.7 trillion (not perhaps the 18 mentioned in chart above). It used to be $51.9 trillion in 2008, and is now at 8.7 trillion:
Following is the breakdown of loan funding: (which I find a strange chart ... such changes in five years? Or perhaps this shows only a particular portion of market) -
Structured finance is mainly (85%) for auto and equipment, credit card and other consumer items, micro and small enterprises.
A few other charts from the same pack: (next post)
How is ETF options bigger market than Equity ETF (?)
For a comparison of Fixed Income to Equity - new issuance: (Although these are not really comparable except perhaps to see new issue. Because equity issue is almost perpetual while fixed income gets retired/repaid periodically).
A few other charts from the same pack: (next post)
More relevant here are ETF and Derivatives on ETF:
How is ETF options bigger market than Equity ETF (?)
For a comparison of Fixed Income to Equity - new issuance: (Although these are not really comparable except perhaps to see new issue. Because equity issue is almost perpetual while fixed income gets retired/repaid periodically).
Another way to consider mutual funds is to consider how households invest in them. US, which is the largest financial market in the world has ~$66.4 trillion in household liquid financial assets. Which is invested as follows:
Apart from this liquid wealth of $66.4 trillion, around $44 trillion is the total US Retirement Assets.
The breakout of total U.S. retirement assets was:
IRAs 30.3%
Private pensions 28.9%
Annuities 9.3%
Government pension assets (federal, state, and local) 31.5%
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To explore -
- Composition of largest mutual fund
- Other large Mutual Funds
- Ownership by Mutual Funds of large companies
- ETFs and the changing investments market
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