Industry-Wide ETF Assets Tick Notably Higher in 2015

Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc. (NYSE:BR), a provider of investor communications and technology solutions, has reported data for Exchange Exchange An exchange is known as a marketplace that supports the trading of derivatives, commodities, securities, and other financial instruments.Generally, an exchange is accessible through a digital platform or sometimes at a tangible address where investors organize to perform trading. Among the chief responsibilities of an exchange would be to uphold honest and fair-trading practices. These are instrumental in making sure that the distribution of supported security rates on that exchange are effectiv An exchange is known as a marketplace that supports the trading of derivatives, commodities, securities, and other financial instruments.Generally, an exchange is accessible through a digital platform or sometimes at a tangible address where investors organize to perform trading. Among the chief responsibilities of an exchange would be to uphold honest and fair-trading practices. These are instrumental in making sure that the distribution of supported security rates on that exchange are effectiv Read this Term-traded funds (ETF) in the 2015 fiscal year, according to a Broadridge statement.

In particular, ETF assets climbed to an all time high of $2.2 trillion, having already experienced an uptick in H2, driven in large part by retail channels, as calculated by its Fund Distribution Intelligence. Over this same time period however, long-term mutual fund assets from third party distributors declined by $161 billion in 2015 to $7.29 trillion in the full year.

Avid industry news reader? Take the Finance Magnates quiz

Broadridge Financial utilizes a Fund Distribution Intelligence (FDI) tool – the utility helps aggregate a variety of information into a unified sales and asset data collection, tracking performance of both mutual funds and ETF assets. The FDI tool collects data on a monthly basis, which is then analyzed by respective channel, geography, etc.

Moreover, retail channels continued to undergo a robust year, having experienced a larger usage of passive products, up by 2.6% YoY, along with institutional channels securing a 1.6% YoY gain. Collectively, passive management products constituted a share of 31% across all channels, up 2.0% in market share in 2015.

Amongst overall retail channels in 2015, registered investment advisors and retail shareholders that utilized discount brokerage firms saw an uptick of passive products, which climbed 30.0% and 58.0% respectively during the year. Alternatively, independent broker dealers locked up the highest amount of overall funds, justifying roughly 80.0% in active investments.

According to Frank Polefrone, Senior Vice President (SVP) of Broadridge’s Access Data product suite in a recent statement on the metrics: “The increased usage of passive investments across all distribution channels accelerated in 2015.”

“Our analysis shows that passively managed index and ETF assets increased by two percent during 2015, while actively managed funds and ETFs saw a one percent decrease. We expect this trend to continue in 2016, as the increased usage of ETFs and index funds continues for core allocations,” he added.