Mutual fund sales likely came in between $1.5 billion and $2 billion in November, according to estimates from the Investment Funds Institute of Canada. However, most of the sales were into the money market funds of the bank-owned fund companies.

IFIC reported that, based on a sample of preliminary data from some of its members, net sales of mutual funds for November are estimated to be between $1.56 billion and $2.06 billion.

RBC Asset Management dominated the net sales picture, contributing more than $1.3 billion worth, putting it far ahead of second place CIBC Asset Management, which had $319 million in monthly net sales. TD Asset Management, Dynamic Mutual Funds and Fidelity Investments were the only other firms with more than $100 million in net sales.

Money market funds were the key to RBC’s complete dominance of the sales charts, as it generated more than $1 billion in short-term fund sales during the month. CIBC would have been in net redemptions if not for its $452 million in money market fund sales. And the bulk of TD’s sales also came from money market funds.

“Early indications are that money market sales were particularly strong in November. This was due to two trends IFIC has observed over the past three months — an increase in U.S. money market fund sales caused by the appreciation of the Canadian dollar and an increase in Canadian money market sales in response to continued uncertainty in capital markets in general,” says Pat Dunwoody, vp of member services and communications with IFIC.

Several firms were in net redemptions in the month, led by AIM Trimark. AIC was the only other firm to report more than $100 million in net redemptions.

The lack of long-term sales in the month came as markets suffered from significant volatility. IFIC estimates that net assets of the mutual fund industry at the end of November will be in the range of $694 billion to $699 billion, down approximately 1.9% from last month’s total of $709.8 billion. “Decreases in most indices in November contributed to the 1.9% reduction in assets under management expected for the month,” Dunwoody says.