Mutual fund sales also gained significantly compared to the previous month
The Canadian investment fund landscape demonstrated remarkable resilience and continued positive momentum in July 2025, with mutual funds and ETFs both posting their second-largest monthly inflows of the year.
The latest stats from the Securities and Investment Management Association (SIMA) show that mutual funds total assets increased to a new high of almost $2.4 trillion, a 1.4% increase from June's total. Since April, mutual fund assets have grown by 7.1%, an increase of $158.5 billion.
Mutual funds saw $4.7 billion in net sales for July (up from $1.4 billion in June), primarily driven by bond funds posting $3.6 billion in net sales compared to $1.6 billion in June, while specialty increased to $846 million (from $791 million) and balanced funds were at $49 million, some way lower than June’s $234 million.
Equity mutual funds remained in negative territory, but with net redemptions of $171 million, this was an improvement on the $906 million net redemptions of June.
Money market funds flipped from net redemptions of $471 million in June to net sales of $399 million in July.
Mutual fund net sales year-to-date to the end of July reached $22 billion, up from just $1.2 billion for the first six months of 2024.
ETFs continued their meteoric rise, reaching a new milestone with total assets surpassing the $600 billion mark for the first time.
By the end of July, ETF assets stood at a record $611.4 billion, representing a healthy 3.2% increase from the previous month.
Net sales of $10.3 billion in July was a strong gain from June’s $3.8 billion, driven by robust inflows into equity ETFs ($6.6 billion) which accelerated from June’s $$3.7 billion.
All but one major asset class posted net sales in July, including $1 billion for balanced (vs. $803 million in June), $1.5 billion for bond (down from $1.9 billion in June), and $1.3 billion for speciality (up from $701 million in June).
Money market funds were the only ETF asset class to post net redemptions, of $153 million, double the $76 million of the previous month.
Year-to-date, the momentum for ETFs remains exceptionally strong, with net sales reaching $66.1 billion as of the end of July. This is a sharp rise from the $37.3 billion total of the same period in 2024.
