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The FSMA launches a quarterly dashboard with key figures on the activity of Belgian retail investors

Press release
Person consulting stock exchange on laptop and smartphone

The Financial Services and Markets Authority (FSMA) has published the first edition of the quarterly FSMA Retail Investor Dashboard, with key figures on equity trading, ETF trading and bond trading by Belgian retail investors at entities under FSMA supervision.

As of early 2018, the FSMA has been receiving information on transactions in financial instruments in the context of the European MiFIR Regulation. Following upon previous studies on the behaviour of Belgian investors, the FSMA is now launching the first edition of the FSMA Retail Investor Dashboard. This new publication, which will be released every three months, is part of the FSMA's ongoing monitoring of the developments on financial markets. The dashboard begins with a number of fixed core charts (which will be updated with each periodic publication), followed by a variable section with changing content. The first edition contains data up to and including the third quarter of 2024.

Growing investor interest in the first half of 2024

In the first half of 2024, there were more active equity investors and ETF investors than in 2023. In the second quarter of 2024, around 170,000 Belgian investors traded listed shares, a 15% increase compared to the same period in 2023. The number of ETF investors also increased significantly: a record high 57,000 Belgian investors traded ETFs, a number almost double that of the second quarter of 2023. By contrast, about 21,000 Belgian investors traded bonds, which represents a decrease of 30% compared to the second quarter of 2023.

Followed by a slowdown in investor activity in the third quarter of 2024

In the third quarter of 2024, the number of active equity investors decreased to approximately 142,000, a decline of more than 15% compared to the previous quarter. The number of ETF investors remained stable. During that quarter, 14,000, 12,000, and 4,000 Belgian investors traded for the first time in listed shares, ETFs or bonds respectively. Compared to the same period in 2023, this represents a stabilization for equities, a sharp increase for new ETF investors and a strong decrease for bonds.

In the third quarter of 2024, Belgian retail investors, as a group, remained net buyers of stock, ETFs and bonds: for each of these three types of financial instruments, there were more buy transactions than sell transactions. In total, Belgian retail investors carried out around 1,060,000 stock transactions in the third quarter of 2024. This group also carried out about 166,000 ETF transactions and almost 30,000 bond transactions. There are significantly higher transaction numbers for stocks, despite the clearly increasing success of ETFs. Since the beginning of 2024, approximately 50% more ETF transactions have been carried out each quarter compared to the end of 2023. By contrast, investing in individual bonds seems to have peaked: since the beginning of 2024, bond transaction numbers fell by about 30% on a quarterly basis compared to the last quarter of 2023.

Median transaction value highest for bonds

The FSMA strives to conclude each edition of the FSMA Retail Investor Dashboard with an editorial section that looks in greater detail at a specific target group, trend or development. This gives the FSMA the opportunity to cover a current topic or inform the public about a broader subject. The focus in the first edition indicates that the median transaction value of a stock order is about 1,500 euros, compared to 1,100 - 1,300 euros for a typical ETF transaction and 10,000 to 13,000 euros for a typical bond transaction. The average bond investor is in his or her sixties, the average stock investor in his or her fifties and the average ETF investor in his or her forties. Over time, the age gap between stock and ETF investors in particular has increased, due mostly to a sharp decline in the average age of ETF investors.

Jean-Paul Servais, Chairman of the FSMA, commented: “The new FSMA Retail Investor Dashboard demonstrates the FSMA’s ability to apply advanced data analysis techniques to big data, thus publishing key figures that provide the market with a clear overview of stock, ETF and bond trading.”

Find out more about this in the dashboard and in our videos (short version (available in French - Dutch only) and full video (available in French - Dutch only)).