London-based exchange-traded fund consultancy ETFGI has announced that the global ETF/exchange traded product industry attracted $372.0bn in net new assets over the course of 2015. This is the largest annual gathering of net new assets, having surpassed the previous record of $338.3bn set in 2014.

Deborah Fuhr, managing partner at ETFGI.

Momentum within the industry remains strong as net gatherings of $55.0bn in December marked the 23rd consecutive month of positive net inflows, and was the highest monthly increase in net new assets during 2015.

Deborah Fuhr, Managing Partner of ETFGI, commented: “The record level of asset gathering in 2015 shows that more investors are using ETFs/ETPs in more ways due to the market turmoil: retail is using more ETFs through Robo-advisors, institutions are using ETFs as alternatives to futures, and financial advisors are using more ETFs especially in multi-asset portfolios.”

During December, equity ETFs/ETPs were by far the most popular asset class, netting $50.0bn in new assets, highlighting investor demand for greater ‘risk-on’ investments. Fixed income ETFs/ETPs brought in $3.4bn while commodity ETFs/ETPs attracted $688m.

Equity ETFs/ETPs gathered $258bn through the year, while fixed income ETFs/ETPs saw $81.5bn in assets, and commodity ETFs/ETPs $2.4bn. Globally there was also a positive picture, net inflows in Canada hit $13.1bn, amounting to a 8% increase over the record set in 2012. In Europe, net gatherings of $82.0bn reflected a 45% lead on 2014’s record, while Japan saw flows of $39.5bn – an uptick of 142% over the previous record set in 2013.

iShares became the most successful issuer to attract new assets, drawing in $139.4bn over the year bring its total assets under management to $1.110tn (37.1% market share). Vanguard came in second place with $84.6bn in net inflows and a total asset base of $509.6bn (17.0% market share), while SPDR ETFs have an asset base of $443.2bn (14.8% market share). As such, the top three ETF/ETP providers, out of 276, account for 68.9% of global ETF/ETP assets.

S&P Dow Jones has the largest amount of ETF/ETP assets tracking its benchmarks with a 27.8% market share; MSCI and FTSE Russell came second and third with 14.9% and 12.9% market shares respectively. Barclays indices account for 9.7% market share.

The ETF/ETP industry now hosts 6,146 ETFs with 11,750 listings, amounting to a total $2.992tn assets under management. The number of providers has increased from 239 to 276 providers and the number of exchanges has grown from 62 to 64.