ETF assets break through $3tn, says ETFGI

Assets invested in the global exchange-traded fund industry (including exchange-traded products) passed the $3 trillion milestone during May 2015.

According to a report from industry consultant ETFGI, ETF assets reached a new record high of $3.015tn. Record levels were also reached for ETFs listed in the United States at $2.15tn and Japan at $117bn.

Net inflows of $19.1bn were driven by $20.8bn net inflows into equity ETFs as investors increasingly turn to these products for equity market exposure.  Fixed income and commodity products saw net outflows of $1.5bn and $912m respectively.

Vanguard gathered the largest net inflows in May with $5.2bn, followed by Huatai-PB with $3.4bn, WisdomTree with $1.7bn and First Trust with $1.6bn.

Deborah Fuhr, managing partner of ETFGI, commented: “Our forecast was that assets would break through US$3 trillion by the middle of 2015. It took the global ETF/ETP industry 19 years to reach US$1 trillion in assets under management, 23 years to reach US$2 trillion in AUM and just 25 years to reach US$3 trillion in AUM. The increasing rate of asset growth illustrates how ETFs have been embraced as an investment solution by institutional investors, financial advisors and retail investors around the world.”

The global ETF industry is now made up of 5,757 ETFs, with 11,117 listings, from 256 providers listed on 62 exchanges across 51 countries.