Morningstar data reveals that Canadian-domiciled sustainable funds and ETFs saw inflows decline but remained positive at US$1.5 billion, representing 5% of flows globally (Europe accounted for 94%. April was the main driver of this, mostly from active strategies. Passive strategies posted outflows of $3.8 billion.
Equity funds were notably strong, unsurprising given the higher number of products available to investors. These funds saw 88% of inflows with 9% going to fixed income, and the remainder to allocation and alternative funds.
Canadian funds also recorded a decline in total assets in the second quarter, down 8% quarter-over-quarter to $24.4 billion.
However, Canada outperformed the global market which saw assets decline more than 13% to $2.4 trillion. This was driven by a 15% drop in passively managed assets compared to 6.6% for active. The broader global fund market was down almost 15%.
There were 245 new sustainable funds launched with asset managers continuing the trend of repurposing conventional products into sustainable.
