BlackRock’s ETF arm said it saw a 16% increase in iShares ETF assets held on wraps for the first quarter since the RDR took hold.
There is now £985m held across eight major platforms: Ascentric, Axa Elevate, Fidelity FundsNetwork, Novia, Nucleus, Raymond James, Standard Life and Transact.
The group attributed this gain to a continued appetite for developed market equities, with iShares FTSE 100, iShares FTSE 250 and iShares S&P 500 together receiving over £20m of assets. The asset class overall took in over £50m of inflows.
In addition, minimum volatility equity strategies were also popular, suggesting investors were interested in stock market returns, with caution. The group’s iShares MSCI World Minimum Volatility and iShares MSCI Emerging Markets Minimum Volatility funds each received approximately £12m of inflows.
That said, inflows into fixed income products continued. Short-dated bond ETFs were particularly popular, with the iShares FTSE Gilts UK 0-5 taking £41m, £20m moved into the iShares Markit iBoxx £ Corporate Bond and £15m of inflows hit its shorter-duration version, which limits the timeframe between one and five years.
Pollyanna Harper, head of intermediary sales UK at iShares, said: "In the three months since the implementation of the RDR we’re encouraged to see a steady increase in the amount of assets advisers are holding in ETFs through platforms. Advisers and investors are becoming more aware of what ETFs are and the benefits they can offer and this data demonstrates the gradual shift taking place from understanding how ETFs work to utilising them in portfolios."
