Canada’s ETF industry kept up last year’s feverish pace and more in January — setting a fresh record for monthly inflows, a research report from National Bank Capital Markets (NBCM) shows.
“In a typical January, ETF activity slows down after a busy year-end of last-minute investing, but January 2026 has proved exceptional: $22.3 billion flowed into Canadian ETFs, more than doubling the average 2025 monthly flow figure,” the report said.
It added that this was the first time in which Canada-listed ETFs have gathered more than $20 billion in a single month and that the inflows recorded in January surpassed the previous month’s record of $16.9 billion inflows by “an impressive 32%.”
“Massive flows” poured into all asset classes, with the bulk — $14.6 billion — going to equity funds, the highest monthly tally on record for these funds. Fixed-income funds registered $4 billion in inflows in the month.
On a regional basis, international equity ETFs led the way, with $7.1 billion flowing into global, developed markets and emerging markets. Canadian equity ETFs took in $4 billion, while U.S. equity ETFs registered $3.4 billion in inflows.
On a sectoral basis, materials, technology and utilities ETFs performed well in January, recording inflows of $851 million, $398 million and $317 million, respectively. Meanwhile, financials ETFs took in $174 million, health care ETFs raked in $99 million and “other” sector ETFs pulled in $55 million.
Energy ETFs and real estate ETFs were in the red for the month, recording $199 million and $18 million in net outflows, respectively.
All-equity asset allocation ETFs recorded “a monster $2.3-billion inflow in January,” a new high for the fund category, NBCM reported.
On the fixed-income side, U.S./North American bond funds posted inflows of $1.3 billion, followed by Canadian aggregate bond funds at $1.1 billion, foreign bond funds at $743 million, Canadian corporate bond funds at $416 million, sub-/investment-grade bond funds at $222 million and Canadian government bond funds at $218 million. Money-market funds took in just $41 million.
On the other hand, preferred/convertible bond funds suffered $4 million in outflows.
By maturity, broad/mixed bond funds led the way, receiving $2.5 billion in inflows. They were followed by real return bond funds at $578 million, mid-term bond funds at $477 million and short-term bond funds at $403 million. Meanwhile, target-maturity funds took in $88 million, long-term bond funds received $82 million and money market funds pulled in $41 million.
Ultra-short-term bond funds suffered $77 million in outflows.
Multi-asset ETFs took in $2 billion, while asset-allocation ETF inflows climbed to a new monthly high of $1.7 billion in January.
Crypto-asset funds took in just $10 million, with most of the funds flowing into bitcoin ETFs with low management expense ratios.
Commodities ETFs “blew past their historical monthly flow record by a wide margin with inflows of $872 million in January, or 11% of the category’s starting assets,” the report said, noting that the “parabolic rallies in gold and silver prices ignited investor interest in commodities ETFs, despite historical pullbacks in the last two days of January.”
Inverse/leveraged funds received $766 million in inflows, ranking second in terms of percentage flow among all asset classes, NBCM said.
ESG ETFs recorded “strong” net sales, with $218 million created, “despite some institutional-sized redemptions from one of the largest ESG ETFs in Canada,” the report noted. There were no new listings or delistings for the fund category in the month.
January was also a busy month for ETF launches, with 23 new funds hitting the market. This included ETF series of mutual funds, single-stock ETFs, index-tracking ETFs, international equity ETFs and asset-allocation ETFs.