Record highs - Global ETF FlowWatch - December 2017 Results

During 2017, ETF worldwide ETFs surged to a record high of US$646 billion in net flows over the past year (US$60 billion in December 2017), a large increase of US$255 billion from 2016’s result. Pushed by robust annual inflows, the global ETF AUM stood at a record high of US$4.809 as of year-end 2017.

In the U.S., equity ETFs amassed US$44 billion of net flows during December, while bond products gathered US$5 billion in net new cash. At the category level, Equity US – Large Cap attracted the most net flows of nearly US$29 billion, followed by Equity Global – Large Cap and Bond North America garnering US$8 billion and US$4 billion, respectively. Meanwhile commodity (mostly Alt - Volatility and Alt – Leveraged/Inverse products) experienced small net redemptions of almost US$1 billion.

ETFs in Asia recorded US$10 billion of net flows during December, led by Equity Japan and Equity Korea, totaling nearly US$8 billion together. ETFs in Europe recorded US$4 billion of inflows mostly attributed to equity ETFs collecting almost US$3.9 billion in net new cash.

Morgan Stanley launched 5 fundamental ETFs to their lineup utilizing indices created by ERI Scientific Beta in December. The ETFs are benchmarked to their respective indices, which are equally weighted, and domiciled in Ireland. The 5 ETFs accumulated US$233 million as of December.