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The assets in Canadian ETFs have been overstated due to double counting — a practice that the Investment Funds Institute of Canada (IFIC) will end.

IFIC said its next report on ETF sales and assets (for the month of February) will, for the first time, remove the double counting that occurs when an ETF holds units of other Canadian ETFs.

The removal of double counting will reduce reported industry assets by about $25.7 billion, or 7.5%, the trade group said.

Last month, IFIC reported that ETF assets totalled $342.5 billion at the end of January.

“The removal of ETF double counting reflects an evolution in IFIC’s data collection and reporting capabilities,” the group said, noting that it put an end to double counting for mutual funds in 2007.