[Edaily Reporter Park Sun-Yeop ] As the domestic exchange-traded fund (ETF) market has grown rapidly to exceed 500 trillion won, asset management firms are exerting greater influence on individual companies and the stock market. However, critics have pointed out that activities related to fiduciary responsibility—such as engaging in dialogue with companies and exercising voting rights—have not kept pace with the expansion of their equity holdings.
Kim Bo-young, a senior researcher at the Korea Capital Market Institute, analyzed in a report published on the 13th, “While asset management firms’ holdings in top-market-cap companies are increasing due to the growth of the ETF market, their actual influence on corporate governance remains limited due to shortcomings in fulfilling their fiduciary duties.”

Net assets in the domestic ETF market surpassed 100 trillion won in June 2023, then grew to 200 trillion won in May 2025 and 300 trillion won in December of the same year. By the end of May this year, it had surpassed 500 trillion won. Since the start of this year alone, it has increased by 71% compared to the end of last year, with domestic equity ETFs driving this growth by accounting for 48% of total net assets.
The share of ETFs in the stock market has also expanded structurally. The share of ETF net assets in the total market capitalization rose from 2.2% at the end of 2020 to 7.5% at the end of 2025. The value of domestic stocks held by asset management companies also increased from around 100 trillion won at the end of 2020 to 206.6 trillion won at the end of 2025.
In particular, as ETFs tracking market-capitalization-weighted indices have grown, asset management firms’ influence over large-cap stocks has increased. As of the end of May this year, it was estimated that the holdings of domestically listed ETFs in the “ SamsungElectronics(005930)” amounted to 53.1 trillion won, representing 2.9% of SamsungElectronics’ market capitalization, while holdings in the “ SK hynix(000660)” totaled 57.9 trillion won, accounting for 3.5% of its market capitalization. Compared to the beginning of the year, the holdings of these two ETFs increased by 248% and 145%, respectively.
During the process of creation and redemption, ETFs directly exchange a basket of physical securities comprising the constituents of their underlying index. Consequently, as the size of an ETF grows, the buying and selling of large-cap stocks occurs repeatedly and en masse during the rebalancing process, which can amplify the impact on supply and demand as well as stock prices.
However, it is assessed that asset managers’ capacity to exercise shareholder rights has not kept pace with the rate of increase in their shareholdings. Although the number of participating institutions and the voting rate have risen since the introduction of the Stewardship Code in Korea, the systems for verifying compliance and the integrated disclosure framework are considered inadequate.
In fact, 42.4% of the asset management firms subject to inspection cited formalistic reasons—such as “minimal impact on the shareholders’ meeting” or “no infringement of shareholder rights”—for more than half of their voting decisions. Among 67 publicly offered asset management firms, only 18 operated dedicated organizations for exercising shareholder rights, while the remaining 49 had their investment, research, or back-office departments handle these tasks concurrently.
Forty asset management firms had a separate decision-making body to deliberate on major agenda items, while at the remaining 27 firms, the decision to exercise voting rights was made by the responsible portfolio manager or the head of the investment division. Only 20 asset management firms incorporated the results of their fiduciary responsibility activities into their key performance indicators (KPIs).
Large international asset management firms leverage their influence by engaging in ongoing dialogue with companies based on the substantial shareholdings they have acquired through passive funds, and by exercising voting rights if improvements are not made. BlackRock conducted 2,373 corporate engagement activities across 42 countries in 2025 and voted on approximately 154,000 proposals at more than 16,500 shareholder meetings. Vanguard also carried out 1,542 corporate engagements and exercised voting rights 13,432 times that same year.
The National Pension Service and financial authorities are also working to improve systems to encourage responsible shareholder activities by asset managers. The National Pension Service plans to evaluate asset managers’ fiduciary responsibility frameworks, conflict-of-interest management, and the appropriateness of their voting practices, and reflect these assessments in its allocation and withdrawal of funds; it also plans to gradually expand the delegation of voting rights.
Senior Researcher Kim emphasized, “We must establish a system for corporate engagement and voting that is commensurate with the large-scale equity holdings resulting from passive funds,” adding, “It is necessary to expand dedicated organizations and specialized personnel, and to establish a decision-making structure independent of investment and research organizations to enhance the professionalism and independence of fiduciary responsibility activities.”