Vanguard Sets Record by Luring $121 Billion in First Quarter

(Bloomberg) -- Vanguard Group shattered another record, luring $121 billion in investor cash in the first quarter.

The world's largest mutual fund company's haul was the most for any quarter and 64 percent more than the same period a year earlier. The firm garnered $48 billion in January, $33 billion in February and $40 billion in March, spokesman John Woerth said in an email Thursday. January and March were also the two biggest cash flow months in the company's history.

Vanguard and New York-based BlackRock Inc., the world's largest asset manager, are emerging as the big winners in the money management industry as investors desert actively managed funds and flock to low-cost mutual funds and exchange-traded funds that track indexes. In the 12 months ended Feb. 28, active funds suffered redemptions of $307 billion while passive ones attracted $614 billion, according to data from Morningstar Inc.

In U.S. ETFs, BlackRock won $53 billion in the quarter and Vanguard gained $40 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. State Street Corp. of Boston ranked third with about $11 billion in flows.

Vanguard, based in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, manages about $4 trillion.

To contact the reporter on this story: Charles Stein in Boston at cstein4@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Margaret Collins at mcollins45@bloomberg.net, Alan Mirabella