The inflow of first-time investors into index trackers (ETFs) is much higher this year than that for shares in Belgium, according to statistics revealed by the country's financial regulator, the FSMA, on Thursday.
An index tracker is an investment fund that tracks the performance of a stock market index. It is a form of passive investing that has been gaining popularity for some time.
The statistics also bear this out: around 61,000 investors invested in ETFs for the first time during the first half of 2026. The figure for shares was around 43,000, and for bonds 9,000.
Younger investors in particular are turning to trackers.
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In 2025, the median age of people who traded in at least one ETF was 43, while it was 39 for those doing so for the first time. For equities, the figures were 54 and 45 respectively.
Overall, however, there are still more investors active in shares than in ETFs or bonds.
During the first quarter of 2026, some 248,000 investors traded in shares (with 1.91 million transactions), compared with around 180,000 in ETFs (760,000) and 18,000 in bonds (28,000).
In the second quarter – when, according to the FSMA, there is a seasonal dip in investor appetite – the figures were 230,000 (1.68 million transactions), 179,000 (722,000) and 15,000 investors (23,000) respectively.
