Across the world, exchange traded funds and products continue to surge in assets under management and inflows.

The total value of assets in exchange traded funds and products rose to $8.344 trillion at the end of February, overtaking the previous record of $3.689 trillion at the end of January, according to ETFGI, a research and consultancy house.

ETFs/ETPs gathered $68.29 billion in net inflows in February, marking the 37th consecutive month or over three years of net inflows and a record $130.99 billion in-year-to-date net inflows, figures showed.

At the end of February, total assets under management in ETFs/ETPs stood at $3.844 trillion. Assets were $2.758 trillion in the US, $620 billion in Europe, $136 billion in Asia-Pacific ex Japan, $198 billion in Japan, and $91 billion in Canada.

The global ETF/ETP industry had 6,699 ETFs/ETPs, with 12,646 listings at the end of February; there were a total of 298 providers listed on 65 exchanges in 53 countries. 

ETFs are typically open-ended, index-based funds, which can be bought and sold like ordinary shares on a stock exchange and offer broad exposure across developed, emerging and frontier markets, equities, fixed income and commodities. Exchange traded products are similar to ETFs in the way they trade and settle but do not use an open-end fund structure. The use of other structures including unsecured debt, grantor trusts, partnerships, and commodity pools by ETPs can, in addition to a significantly different risk profile, create different tax and regulatory implications for investors when compared to ETFs, which are funds.