According To ETFGI: Global ETF And ETP Assets Reached US$2.44 Trillion, A New Record High, At The End Of February 2014

Flows into ETFs and ETPs listed globally rebounded in February gathering net inflows of US$29.0 billion which, when combined with the positive market performance in the month, pushed assets in the global ETF/ETP industry to a new record high of US$2.44 trillion, according to preliminary findings from ETFGI’s February Global ETF and ETP industry insights report. The Global ETF/ETP industry has 5,183 ETFs/ETPs, with 10,210 listings, from 219 providers on 59 exchanges.

“Positive comments from the Fed indicating that the US economy continues to brighten, the S&P 500 ending February with a record close of 1859 and signs of a wider global recovery in equities seems to have caused investors to come out of their winter hibernation after the winter storms and put net inflows of US$29.0 billion into ETFs/ETPs in February.” according to Deborah Fuhr, Managing Partner at ETFGI.

Dissecting the overall net inflows we find that fixed income ETFs/ETPs gathered US$16.8 Bn - the largest net inflows - followed by equity ETFs/ETPs with US$10.2 Bn. Commodity ETFs/ETPs saw net inflows of US$870 Mn.

The competition to gather assets remains high. The top 100 ETFs/ETPs - less than 2% of the 5,183 ETFs/ETPs - account for more than half (57%) of global assets. Only 7% of ETFs/ETPs hold more than US$1 Bn in assets, while 69% have less than US$100 Mn in assets, 59% have less than US$50 Mn in assets and nearly a third of all products have less than US$10 Mn in assets.

In the first two months of 2014 Vanguard has gathered the largest net ETF/ETP inflows with US$9.4 Bn, followed by iShares with US$7.1 Bn, Nomura AM with US$4.2 Bn, First Trust with US$2.5 Bn and Guggenheim with US$2.0 Bn in net inflows.