A press release said flows were driven mostly by demand for U.S. equity and international equity ETFs, which together drew $19 billion in net flows. Bond ETFs saw net inflows of $4 billion.
U.S. ETFs drew a total of $49 billion through the first four months of 2011 – setting a pace for ETFs to log their fifth straight year of $100 billion or more in annual net inflows.
At the end of April, U.S. ETF assets stood at a record $1.13 trillion, up from $1.01 trillion at the end of 2010.
“The flexibility of ETFs and their usefulness for both strategic and tactical purposes continues to propel demand,” said Loren Fox, senior research analyst at Strategic Insight, in the press release.