Savings & Retirement

Mutual Funds Bleed $469 Billion as ETFs Triumph in Zero-Sum 2020

  • ETFs attract $427 billion as mutual funds see record outflows
  • Well-timed regulations, Fed ETF buying help accelerate shift
The Fed Piles Into Bond ETFs
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The arms race between mutual funds and their exchange-traded brethren turned into a beat-down in 2020.

Roughly $427 billion has poured into U.S. exchange-traded funds this year, divided almost evenly between equity and fixed-income funds, according to Bloomberg Intelligence data. Meanwhile, mutual funds have bled roughly $469 billion of assets in 2020, on track for the worst year on record in Investment Company Institute data going back to 1990.