Another AUM Record For ETFs

Although flows to equity funds have recently languished, the exchange-traded funds eclipsed another AUM (assets under management) record last month, finishing June with a combined $3.17 trillion in assets under management.

Exchange-traded products listed around the world added $31.38 billion in assets during the month of June marking the 29th consecutive month on net inflows, according to ETFGI, a London-based ETF research firm.

The United States is still, by far, the world's largest ETF with over $2.2 trillion in combined ETF assets at the end of June. However, record asset levels were also touched in Japan ($147.67 billion) and Canada ($79.14 billion), according to ETFGI data.

Other Milestones

Recently, milestones have been easy to come by for ETF issuers. Earlier this week, BlackRock, Inc. BLK, parent company of iShares, the world's largest ETF issuer, said bond ETFs around the world now have $600 billion in assets under management.

Related Link: AdvisorShares Launches Actively Managed Small-Cap ETF

Of the nearly $23 billion added to global bond ETFs during the second quarter, iShares captured $11.9 billion of that total, including $4.7 billion in the United States. Year-to-date, bond ETFs around the world have added $66.7 billion in new assets with $39.3 billion allocated to iShares funds, including $24.3 billion to the issuer's U.S.-listed bond ETFs.

“The Global ETF/ETP industry had 6,424 ETFs/ETPs, with 12,268 listings, assets of US$3.177 trillion, from 284 providers listed on 65 exchanges in 53 countries,” said ETFGI.

Last month, iShares ETFs added $13.43 billion in new assets, with Vanguard following at $10.02 billion in new assets. Nomura was third for the month in terms of asset gathering at $2.1 billion, according to ETFGI data.

Most Recent Records

As of July 11, the top asset-gathering ETF in the U.S. year-to-date is the SPDR Gold Trust (ETF) GLD. GLD, the world's largest gold ETF, has hauled in $13.5 billion in new assets, an advantage of $6.1 billion over the second-place iShares Barclays Aggregate Bond Fund AGG. Four of the top 10 asset-gathering ETFs in the United States this year are fixed income funds.