“Our forecast was that assets [for the global ETF industry] would break through $3trn by the middle of 2015,” said Deborah Fuhr, managing partner.
The AUM reached $3.01trn on 31 May, compared to $2.99trn in April.
“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,” Fuhr said.
Global ETFs are likely to surpass the assets of global hedge fund industry during the second quarter, the firm had said in April.
During May, exchange traded products listed globally saw net inflows of $19.1bn, driven by inflows amounting to $20.8bn in equity ETFs/ETPs. Fixed income and commodity ETFs saw net outflows of $1.5bn and $912m, respectively.
Global ETFs saw record levels of net new assets in May, amounting to $127.6bn.
Year-to-date, products listed in Europe received $39.2bn in new assets, which “is significantly more” than the prior record of $26.4bn during the same period in 2014.
ETFs/ETPs listed in Japan gathered $14.5bn, which is more or less similar to $14.3bn gathered during the same period in 2014.
Recently, Nomura launched two Japan-focused ETFs on the London Stock Exchange. The products track the performance of the JPX-Nikkei 400 Total Return Index, launched in 2014. It is Japan’s first broad index that includes only profitable companies with high and sustainable dividend yields, which encourages better corporate governance.
