Fresh figures show that enthusiasm for "passive" investing entities hasn't declined.

Assets invested in the global exchange-traded fund and product industry reached $5.78 trillion at the end of September, rising by 2 per cent from a month before, benefiting from $77.17 billion of net money, industry figures show. The data suggests that while some skeptics fret about the relentless drive towards more “passive” investing, the trend remains in place for the time being.

For the year so far, net new assets invested into ETFs and ETPs stood at $350.25 billion, which is on par with the $351.09 billion gathered year-to-date in 2018, according to ETFGI, an independent research and consultancy firm tracking the sector.

At the end of September 2019, the Global ETF/ETP industry had 7,797 ETFs/ETPs, with 15,662 listings, from 422 providers on 69 exchanges in 58 countries.

ETFs are typically open-ended, index-based funds, with active ETFs accounting for 1.1 per cent of the market share. ETPs, on the other hand, are similar to ETFs in the way that they trade and settle, but do not use an open-end fund structure.