While equity exchange traded funds still dominate the close to $3.6 trillion U.S.-listed ETF space, bond ETFs are quickly gaining traction among investor.
The global ETF indusry just enjoyed a year of phenomenal growth, attracting $1.3 trillion in assets to end 2017 at a record $4.8 trillion in assets under management, reports Jennifer Thompson for the Financial Times.
Within that total, equity-oriented ETFs gathered the lion’s share of assets, making up $3.7 trillion or 77.6% of total assets, and stock ETFs also attracted the biggest chunk of inflows last year.
However, bond ETFs are quickly gaining in popularity. Global fixed-income ETFs attracted $138 billion in net new assets in 2017, compared to nearly $112 billion in inflows for the year prior.
In the U.S., there are 2,126 listed ETFs with $3.6 trillion in assets under management, but there are 333 fixed income-related ETFs and they only make up $555.5 billion in assets.