Although the pace of inflows has slackened from a year ago, Manulife said its wealth and asset management units continued to draw in new client money.

Toronto-headquartered Manulife said its wealth and asset management business, which operates worldwide, generated net flows of C$4.8 billion ($3.64 billion) in the second quarter of this year, down by C$9.7 billion from the figure clocked up a year ago. Gross flows were C$26.6 billion, a 25 per cent year-on-year drop, the firm said late last week.

Although inflows fell, the second quarter was the 26th consecutive quarter of positive net flows for the wealth and asset management arm and all divisions reported positive net inflows, despite market volatility of recent months, Manulife said in a statement.

Net flows declined from record levels a year ago largely because of higher redemptions in Manulife’s US mutual fund business and the non-recurrence of a significant institutional mandate sale last year.

In the US, gross flows rose by 5 per cent; this more than offset a drop in mutual fund sales due to challenging market conditions.

In Canada, “other wealth sales fell by 12 because of challenging market conditions and product changes. This area generated new business value of C$272 million in 2Q16, up 34 per cent from 2Q15.

In Asia, gross flows were down from record levels in the second quarter of 2015, which benefited from significant mutual fund inflows driven by a sharp rise in local equity markets in mainland China.

Manulife Financial said that across all its business groups, it reported net income attributed to shareholders of C$704 million for the second quarter of 2016, fully diluted earnings per common share of C$0.34 and return on common shareholders’ equity of 7.1 per cent, compared with C$600 million, $0.29, and 6.4 per cent, respectively, for the second quarter of 2015.