A spreading credit crunch spiked volatility and spooked markets in August, causing Canada’s mutual fund investors to pull out more than $1.5 billion.

It was the first month of net redemptions since October 2004.

The latest data from the Investment Funds Institute of Canada shows the redemptions followed net sales of almost $3 billion a month earlier.

The majority of redemptions, $916 million, came from money market funds that were directly impacted by the liquidity crunch in the asset-backed commercial paper market. The weakness also spilled over to long-term funds, which had $633 million in net redemptions during August.

Canadian equity funds were the biggest source of long-term fund redemptions, with $578 million leaving the category. Domestic bond funds had $303 million in redemptions, followed by domestic balanced funds, which had $271.5 million.

Foreign balanced funds held up better, generating $670 million in positive net sales for the month. The total, however, was down from almost $1.3 billion in net sales the prior month.

Total mutual fund assets also declined in August, to $695.9 billion from $703.5 billion in July.

Only three of the 10 largest fund firms that report to IFIC generated positive net sales in August: Fidelity Investments Canada, AGF Funds and Franklin Templeton. Scotia Securities was the month’s top performer with $120 million in net sales and $144 million in long-term net sales.

All of the usual big sellers, such as RBC Asset Management and TD Asset Management, suffered net redemptions in August. TD took the biggest hit, with $543 million in monthly redemptions, most of it in its money market funds. RBC suffered $63 million in overall redemptions, but it was actually modestly positive on the long-term side, with $52.6 million in net sales.