Canadian ETF growth maintains its pace

Article Excerpt

Canadian ETF assets are still growing. At the end of August 2018, there were 621 ETFs in Canada, with assets under management of $163.7 billion. Total assets were 22% higher than a year earlier. They were almost double the total asset value recorded at the end of 2015. Blackrock Canada remains the largest ETF provider with 115 funds and a 37% market share. BMO Asset Management follows closely, with a 31% market share, Vanguard (11%), Horizons (7%) and RBC (3%) are also industry leaders. Growth in Blackrock’s assets under management slowed to 5.9% over the past year. However, all the other market leaders experienced rapid growth in assets. RBC led, with 52% growth in assets under management from a year earlier. ETFs focused on stocks still dominate the Canadian market: 70% of all ETF assets are allocated to stocks. Fixed income products such as bond ETFs account for 27% of all assets, while commodities (0.6%) and multi-asset class products (1.7%) continue to attract…