Investors continued to pull their money out of Canadian mutual funds in July.
The latest data from the Investment Funds Institute of Canada (IFIC) showed there was a net redemption of $4.5 billion from equity and bond mutual funds in the month. That follows a net redemption of $10.4 billion in June.
Money market funds, which are generally considered relatively safer assets, saw a modest net inflow.
Earlier this week, Royal Bank of Canada shed some light on where some of that money could be shifting too: Guaranteed investment certificates (GICs).
RBC Chief Financial Officer Nadine Ahn said on a conference call with analysts on Wednesday the bank saw money pulled from its own mutual funds and that “RBC captured a good part of the shift as clients move to GICs during a period of elevated market uncertainty.”
The IFIC data showed mutual fund assets rose 4.3 per cent month-over-month in July to $1.86 trillion.
Meanwhile, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) experienced a net inflow of $1.5 billion last month. Investors gravitated to ETFs focused on fixed income, while equity ETFs saw a net outflow.
ETF assets rose by 5.1 per cent to $303.7 billion, according to the data.
The IFIC collects survey data accounts for about 91 per cent of the mutual fund industry and is complemented by information from Investor Economics.
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