The Investment Funds Institute of Canada (IFIC) has reported its full year fund statistics for 2022, and the figures are sobering.  

During the month of December, mutual fund assets declined $61.3 billion or 3.3 per cent, month-over-month to finish the year at $1.809-trillion. This is down from $2.083-trillion in assets the industry held at the end of December 2021. Net redemptions continued as investors sold off another $8.698-billion during the month, continuing a slide which began back in March 2022. Comparatively speaking, in December 2021, mutual funds recorded net sales of $1.415-billion. 

Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) during the month recorded net sales of $7.676-billion in December 2022, an improvement over December 2021 figures when net sales were just $5.633-billion. Assets still declined $4.1-billion or 1.3 per cent month-over month, to finish at $313.7-billion at the end of December 2022. In December 2021, net assets invested in ETFs were $317.8-billion. 

In mutual funds, only specialty funds and money market funds were in net sales territory over the course of the whole year, while all other categories reported net redemptions. This is a reversal of 2021 when net sales were reported across all categories, except the money market category.  

Full year mutual fund net redemptions reached $44.077-billion in 2022, compared to net sales of $113.574-billion in 2021. ETF net sales were $36.091-billion in 2022, down from the $58.706 reported in 2021.