BlackRock's $7 trillion in AUM built on passive and ETFs

BlackRock Inc. announced its 2019 earnings results Wednesday, including assets under management of $7.4 trillion and revenues of $14.5 billion. The megamanager's iShares exchange-traded fund business made up about one-third of those assets.

While BlackRock's ETF AUM hit about $4.2 trillion with related revenues of $4.4 billion, the firm's return on those assets has been in decline. Revenues represented about 0.2% of assets, amounting to 20 basis points per dollar of assets, in 2019, down from 26 basis points in 2018.