ETF flows totalled US$21bn globally - Global ETF FlowWatch August 2015

ETF flows worldwide in August totalled $21 billion, experiencing a 47.5% drop MoM. The biggest drop came from the U.S., equaling a decline of 86.6% MoM in ETF net inflows ($3 billion). Global net deposits year-to- date through August reached $214 billion while ETF assets globally remained almost $3 trillion.

The U.S. saw net redemptions of $5.6 billion in equity ETFs, the first outflows since February this year, which was largely attributed to the stock market turmoil. While emerging market ETFs in general suffered large outflows, SPDR S&P 500 ETF, the largest ETF in the world, attracted $3.5 billion this month.

European ETFs garnered $10 billion in net flows, mainly driven by large cap Europe equity products. Asia attracted almost $ 7 billion in ETF flows, slightly lower than the level of prior month, with Japan’s Nomura NF Nikkei 225 Leveraged Index ETF alone gaining over $2.5 billion for the month.

The two biggest ETF new launches of August were Korea-domiciled Kyobo AXA Power Short Term Bond ETF and US-domiciled Virtus Newfleet Multi-Sector Unconstrained Bond ETF, an actively-managed ETF, attracting $177 million and $ 130 million in net flows, respectively.