Every month, sales stats from the different Canadian fund managers come out like clockwork. Yet over the past few days the numbers from IGM Financial, the parent of Investors Group and Mackenzie, have been missing.
Turns out IGM is following in the footsteps of CI Investments and Invesco Trimark, which have also ceased reporting monthly data. That doesn't mean they have stopped releasing all figures. CI, for instance, will still report quarterly sales stats.
These firms aren't breaking any rules by opting against monthly data because regulators don't require them to release it. The industry has simply announced these figures for years because it gave firms a way to demonstrate that they're getting a leg up on one another.
The worry is that the latest actions could snowball into a bigger trend, and more firms will stop reporting. That would have an affect on the aggregate fund flow numbers released by the Investment Funds Institute of Canada, which are closely watched by people on Bay Street because it gives them a sense of where money is moving.
For those who watch these aggregate numbers, IGM's decision won't have an impact because the firm has agreed to send over its monthly sales figures as long as IFIC doesn't break them out and report individual company stats.
CI's decision also didn't affect IFIC numbers because the company has not sent its stats over for a number of years.
Tim Kiladze