Exchange-traded fund assets declined slightly, from a record high, but net inflows between January and September 2021 have already far surpassed last year’s global total. Photo: Patrick Weissenberger / Unsplash

Exchange-traded fund assets declined slightly, from a record high, but net inflows between January and September 2021 have already far surpassed last year’s global total. Photo: Patrick Weissenberger / Unsplash

$9.5trn in assets were invested in exchange-traded funds and exchange-traded products at the end of September 2021, making the monthly figure the “second highest on record” according to the research and consulting outfit ETFGI.

ETFs and ETPs recorded global net inflows of $89.97bn during the month of September, which put year-to-date net inflows at $924.18bn, ETFGI on 12 October. The year-to-date figure was $486.67bn in 2020 and the full-year figure for 2020 was $762.77bn.

Total assets were down by 2.3% from the end of August 2021, which had logged a record-breaking in total assets. The S&P500 was down by 4.65%, non-US developed markets were down by 2.99% and “emerging markets were down 3.12% in September,” noted Deborah Fuhr, ETFGI’s founder and managing director.

Exchange-traded funds are mutual fund-like products that automatically track an index or type of financial asset, and can be bought or sold in real time on the stock market. Many investors put their cash in ETFs because they typically have lower management fees.

At the end of September 2021, the firm counted 9,461 products from 580 providers, traded on 79 exchanges in 62 jurisdictions.

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