It has been 25 years since the first exchange-traded fund (ETF) was listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX). It was March 1990 and the fund was called the Toronto 35 Index Participation Units (TIPs). It tracked the TSX 35 index for nearly three years before an ETF was listed in the U.S. for the first time.

“The ETF is a made-in-Canada financial innovation. We are proud to have led the world in the creation of this revolutionary investment product,” says Ungad Chadda, senior vice president, TSX. “The ETF industry in Canada and globally has been a phenomenal growth story and TSX is committed to supporting the Canadian ETF market as it further grows and evolves.”

The TIPs ETF no longer exists in its original form as it was merged into the iUnits S&P/TSE 60 Index Participation Fund in March 2000. Following several name changes in the following years, that fund is now known as the iShares S&P/TSX 60 Index ETF (TSX:XIU), the largest Canadian-domiciled ETF with over $11 billion in assets under management (AUM). It is among the top five most actively traded securities on TSX.

The TIPs ETF was a precursor to an industry that would see extensive growth over 25 years in Canada. The industry ended 2014 with nearly $77 billion in AUM. This is an increase of $13.7 billion from 2013, which is the largest annual increase in the industry’s history.

As of February 2015, there were 354 ETFs listed on the TSX and they currently represent more than 20% of total TSX listings. In 2014, 5.5 billion ETFs were traded on the TXS, which represents 7% of all trading on the Exchange, according to information provided by the TSX.

On a global scale, the ETF and exchanged traded product (ETP) industry consists of 5,632 ETFs/ETPs with 10,902 listings from 245 providers on 63 exchanges in 52 countries as of February 2015. This has resulted in assets of US$2.919 trillion, according to data from research firm ETFGI.

***

Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly attributed the quote in the second paragraph to Atul Tiwari, managing director, Vanguard Investments Canada Inc. and vice chairman of the Canadian ETF Association.