Vanguard has surged ahead of its largest rival BlackRock, gathering more than three times the amount of new money across its global exchange-traded-funds business so far this year.

Data from Vanguard show the Pennsylvania-headquartered asset manager pulled in $47.1bn of new ETF assets worldwide between January and the end of March. This was compared to the $13.8bn which BlackRock said its iShares division garnered over the same period.