This article first appeared in Personal Wealth, The Edge Malaysia Weekly, on June 20 - June 26, 2016.

Investments in listed exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and exchange-traded products (ETPs) globally hit a record US$3.143 trillion at end-May, according to preliminary data in ETFGI’s May 2016 global ETF and ETP industry insights report. 

The report, released on June 9, says record high levels were also seen in ETFs/ETPs listed in the US (US$2.229 trillion) and Japan (US$147 billion).

Last month, fixed income ETFs/ETPs saw the largest net inflows (US$7.47 billion), followed by commodity ETFs/ETPs (US$5.47 billion). Equity ETFs/ETPs, meanwhile, recorded net outflows of US$4.53 billion.

From January to May, fixed income ETFs/ETPs saw the largest net inflows (US$56.83 billion), followed by commodity ETFs/ETPs (US$19.9 billion) and equity ETFs/ETPs (US$3.4 billion).

Of the ETF providers, Vanguard recorded the largest net ETF/ETP inflows last month (US$8.46 billion), followed by Schwab ETFs (US$1.32 billion) and Van Eck (US$1.11 billion). During the period, Vanguard saw the largest net ETF/ETP inflows YTD at US$32.26 billion, followed by iShares at US$27.08 billion and SPDR ETFs at US$6.29 billion.

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