February 2018 Report Key Trends for US Funds

Active long-term funds experienced net redemptions of US$11.4 billion in February 2018, a significant decline from the US$24.8 billion in net deposits seen during January. International Equity led pockets of demand during the month at US$7.4 billion, followed by Taxable Bond at US$5.0 billion. American Funds led International Equity net deposits at US$1.9 billion, while Fidelity was the leading active Taxable Bond manager at US$2.2 billion.

Net flows to passive mutual funds and ETPs fell drastically in February, experiencing net redemptions of US$489 million after record net deposits of US$96.1 billion in January. Within February’s totals, index mutual funds actually recorded US$12.0 billion of inflows while ETPs saw US$12.5 billion of withdrawals (speaking to the at times differing investor base characteristics of passive mutual funds versus ETPs).

International Equity was the strongest area of demand among passive funds at US$13.4 billion, while US Equity was the highest-outflow grouping at US$13.9 billion. Foreign Large Blend exposures led passive fund flows overall at US$10.1 billion, with US$4.1 billion coming via ETFs and US$5.9 billion in mutual fund. Vanguard was the highest-selling International Equity index mutual fund manager at US$4.1 billion and BlackRock led among ETFs at US$3.7 billion.

As long-term funds experienced net outflows, Money Market funds rebounded through February with net new flows of US$42.6 billion (compared to January’s net outflows of US$50.4 billion). Taxable Money Market funds accounted for nearly all of the net demand in February at US$42.0 billion.