Assets in ESG ETFs Up 34% in '18

Global assets invested in environmental, social and governance exchange-traded funds and other products are up nearly 34% in the first 11 months of 2018 from the year-ago period, compared with just 4.6% year-over-year growth in the assets of all ETFs/ETPs trading worldwide, according to EFTGI.

The research group also says ESG EFTs and ETPs had close to $856 million of asset inflows in November, a jump of almost 7% from the prior month. Their total invested asset level stands at $23.22 billion.

As for flows into actively managed exchange-traded funds and products, these topped $3.6 billion in November. Overall, the level of total assets held in actively managed ETFs and ETPs grew by 3.1% from October to hit $109.4 billion. Actively managed fixed-income ETFs listed in North America, EFTGI adds, continue to grow in popularity.

The UBS MSCI SRI ETF had inflows of $140 million in November, to give it total assets of $823 million, while the iShares MSCI EM ESG Optimized ETF grew by $82 million in November to hit $437 million.

“While trade talks continue to make noise in the headlines, the very real prospect of slowing global growth appears to be filtering into market sentiment,” according to Deborah Fuhr, managing partner and a founder of ETFGI.

Equity-focused actively managed ETFs/ETPs listed globally had inflows of $276 million in November, bringing net inflows for the first 11 months of 2018 to $6.3 billion; that’s slightly less than the nearly $6.4 billion in net inflows at the same time last year.

Fixed-income-focused actively managed ETFs and ETPs experienced net inflows of $3.6 billion, bringing year-to-date inflows for 2018 to $24.4 billion; that’s more than last year at this time, when net inflows were $16.9 billion.

EFTGI tracks about 610 active products worldwide and close to 205 ESG products.