BlackRock, BMO, and Vanguard maintain their positions as the top three Canadian ETF providers
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The Canadian ETF Association (CETFA) has released its monthly report on asset trends in the Canadian ETF space.
Based on the report for February, the Canadian ETF space has remained flat relative to the previous month, with assets remaining steady at $150.1 billion. This follows levels of $147.1 billion and $145.7 billion observed for December and November, respectively. The report also showed that in January, ETFs made up 9.2% of Canadian investment funds in terms of assets.
Meanwhile, the $2.4 billion in net creations for ETF assets in January made up 32.6% of investment-fund creations for the month. Net creations for February went up by 25% to reach $3 billion. Total net creations for January and February amounted to $5.4 billion, about 20% of the $25.8 billion in net creations observed for the whole of 2017.
Still the top three Canadian ETF providers by AUM for February were BlackRock Canada, with around $59 billion in assets over 114 ETFs; BMO Asset Management, with some $47 billion across 81 ETFs; and Vanguard Canada, with almost $15 billion over 36 ETFs.
Eight of BlackRock’s iShares ETFs made it to the top 20 largest ETFs for February, the largest of which was the S&P/TSX 60 Index ETF (XIU) with around $10.5 billion in assets. Seven BMO ETFs also made it, led by the BMO S&P 500 Index ETF with approximately $4.7 billion in assets — a distant second to the top-ranking XIU. Also on the list were two Horizons ETFs, HXT and HPR, with around $1.6 billion apiece; and the BMO Short Corporate Bond Index ETF (ZCS), an investment-grade bond ETF with about $1.5 billion in assets.
Breaking into the top five ETFs by net creations for February is Mackenzie’s US Investment Grade Corporate Bond Index ETF (QUIG), which secured fourth place with $135 million in net creations. The other funds in the group were:
- BlackRock Canada’s XIU with $435 million;
- Vanguard Canada’s Canadian Aggregate Bond Index ETF (VAB), which recently lowered its annual management fee from 0.12% to 0.08%, with $266 million;
- BlackRock’s iShares S&P/TSX Capped Financials Index ETF (XFN), with $143 million; and
- BMO MSCI EAFE Index ETF, with $132 million
