Amid the banking crisis this week, outflows from US loan funds reached their highest level of the year, at $1.64 billion for the week ended March 15, according to data from Morningstar. In fact, this week's outflow was the largest since the week ended Sept. 28 ($1.9B) and marks the nineteenth straight weekly outflow, with $11.64 billion exiting the asset class over that span. Moreover, the year-to-date net outflow rose this week, to $5.49 billion, from $3.85 billion last week. That is more than half of the $9.2 billion outflow that was recorded in all of 2022. And it wasn't that long ago when the asset class posted a total net inflow of $34.9 billion (2021).
This week’s outflow was once again driven by mutual funds, which recorded an exit of $926.7 million, while ETFs lost $713.5 million.
With this week's heavy losses, the four-week trailing average widened to $753.9 million, from $522.5 million last week and from $533 million two weeks ago.
As of March 15, total net assets at loan funds shrank to $69.8 billion, from $71.9 billion last week, split between $57.5 billion in mutual funds and $12.3 billion in ETFs.
This article originally appeared on PitchBook News