| 27 August 2009

Fidelity president Rodger Lawson claimed 12.1% of the mutual fund market as of the end of June. That would be slightly higher than the 11.7% market share they owned at the beginning of this year and would be a clear widening of their market share.

However, those figures don't include ETFs. A convenient decision if ever there was one. Vanguard officials claim the top spot when you include ETFs, and we agree with their assessment. "Excluding ETFs from the count would be like not counting the Prius in Toyota sales figures because it is a hybrid," said John Woerth, a spokesman for Vanguard, in this Reuters article.

Fidelity prides itself on claiming the number one position so any perception that it is losing market share could hurt. But given the rise in ETFs and the similarity to mutual funds, it makes sense that Vanguard, which prides itself on low fees, has gained the top spot.

"I'm really proud of what we've done," Fidelity's Lawson said in the interview.

Either way you look at it, the two are very close and the sense that ETFs could push one over the edge should give Fidelity execs something to think about. For its part, Schwab recently introduced nine new ETFs to complement their line-up of mutual funds. Fidelity, on the other hand, only offers one ETF under its own brand.