According to new data from independent research and consultancy firm ETFGI, ETP and ETF assets globally are now at US$2.04 trillion, down from an all-time high of US$2.13 trillion at the end of May 2013.

There are now 4,849 ETFs and ETPs, with 9,878 listings, from 209 providers listed on 56 exchanges, according to ETFGI.

Year to date assets in ETFs and ETPs are still up 4.9 per cent from US$1.95 trillion.

The outflows were due to market uncertainty surrounding the future of quantitative easing programs and volatility in the markets, said Deborah Fuhr, managing partner at ETFGI.

Fixed income ETFs/ETPs experienced the largest net outflows with US$7.1 billion, followed by commodity ETFs/ETPs with US$3.8 billion, while equity ETFs/ETPs gathered net inflows with US$4.8 billion. Equity ETFs/ETPs saw net inflows of US$4.8billion.

However, the sector has still seen significant inflows this year, with net inflows of US$103.9 billion to the end of June down only slightly from the US$107.2 billion of net inflows for the same period last year.

By provider, Vanguard ranks third in terms of assets and has gathered US$28.9 billion in net inflows year to date, the only one of the top five providers to receive net inflows in June.

iShares, the largest provider in terms of assets, had net outflows of US$7.9 billion in June, but is still up US$23 billion in net flows for the year to date.

SPDR ETFs is the second largest provider by assets, and had net outflows of US$2.4 billion in June, and net outflows of US$6 billion year to date.