This milestone was first beaten at the end of May 2015 before dipping back underneath, but at the end of March this year it crossed the threshold again, driven by dovish central bank policy around the world.
“Based on comments from the Fed there is a growing belief that interest rates will be held lower for longer than previously anticipated,” said Deborah Fuhr, managing partner at ETFGI.
“The European Central Bank cut rates and announced additional stimulus will begin in April, accelerating the rate of bond purchases from €60bn to €80bn per month,” she noted.
During March ETFs and ETPs listed globally gathered $45.3bn in net new assets, the 26th consecutive month of net inflows.
At this point in time, the global ETF industry had 6,240 ETFs/ETPs, with 12,042 listings and assets of $3.07trn (£2.1trn, €2.6trn).
There are now some 277 providers listed on 64 exchanges in 51 countries, according to preliminary data from ETFGI’s March 2016 global ETF and ETP industry insights report.
Blackrock’s iShares gathered the largest net inflows in March with $20.97bn, followed by Vanguard with $9.74bn and SPDR ETFs with $6.25bn in net inflows.
Year to date, iShares gathered the largest net inflows with $24.54bn, followed by Vanguard with $17.82bn and SPDR ETFs with $8.78bn net inflows.
S&P Dow Jones has the largest amount of ETF assets tracking its benchmarks with 27.5% market share; MSCI is second with 14.6% market share, followed by FTSERussell with a 12.4% market share.
