The Investment Funds Institute of Canada (IFIC) published its most recent monthly investment fund statistics report, showing mutual funds getting pummeled in most categories by net redemptions. Despite this, mutual fund assets still increased by $15.3-billion or 0.8 per cent, to finish with $1.883-trillion in net assets at the end of March 2023.

This figure is down considerably when compared to year ago net assets, however. At the end of March 2022 mutual fund net assets were nearly $2.002-trillion.

Mutual fund net redemptions were $3.402-billion in March 2023, down dramatically compared to February 2023 when mutual funds reported net sales of $3.258-billion. A year ago, March 2022 net sales were $1.126-billion. Year-to-date mutual funds have reported net redemptions of $6-million. During the same period in 2022 net sales were $18.276-billion.

Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) fared far better in March. Assets totalled $337.1-billion, up 2.8 per cent from $327.9-billion in February 2023. This is also higher than net assets of $324.7-billion reported at the end of March 2022. ETFs also recorded net sales of $6.842-billion during the month, up from $4.1-billion in February 2023 and up from $4.58-billion reported in March 2022. Year-to-date sales began closing in on 2022’s figures with year-to-date ETF sales of $10.45-billion reported at the end of March 2023, down from $13.18-billion at the end of the same period in 2022.