Money is continuing to flow into exchange-traded products (ETPs) at record levels, with assets under management in globally-listed ETPs breaking through the $3 trillion milestone for the second time at the end of the first quarter of 2016, after first exceeding that amount in May 2015.
During March 2016, ETPs attracted $45.3bn in net new assets, marking the 26th consecutive month of inflows, according to data from ETFGI. Equity ETPs accounted for the largest volume of inflows, at $26.3bn, followed closely by fixed-income ETPs with $14.8bn and commodity ETPs with $2.42bn.
iShares lured the largest chunk of inflows, followed by Vanguard and SPDR. But they were not the only ones to launch new products, with 27 new providers launching 71 new products in March alone.
However that picture contrasts with a recent study into the European exchange-traded fund (ETF) market by Thomson Reuters Lipper, which showed that assets under management in Europe decreased in February 2016 from €430.3bn to €426.1bn. According to Detlef Glow, the company's head of EMEA research, the decrease was due to the performance of the underlying markets, while net sales contributed €300m to overall assets under management.
According to Mr Glow, bond funds gathered the most assets in February, while iShares was the best selling ETF promoter for the month, with iShares Core MSCI World UCITS ETF (SWDA) the best selling individual ETF.
