Data from EPFR Global show a $1.15 billion cash inflow to U.S. bank loan mutual funds and ETFs in the week ended March 13, by weekly reporters only. This is the 29th consecutive week with inflows to the asset class, for $15.8 billion over that span.

This is the second largest weekly inflow ever following $1.28 billion two weeks ago. It is up from $1.01 billion last week and above the $1.09 billion four-week trailing average. Inflows total at least $1 billion have now been recorded in five of the past six weeks.

ETF inflows at $100 million were the lowest in six weeks and represent just 9% of the total inflow, the lowest portion since Jan 30. Last week ETF flows were positive $139 million, or 14% of the total.

Total inflow for the year-to-date is $10 billion, with ETFs contributing $1.1 billion, or 12% of the total.

Total assets of the weekly reporter sample were $60.9 billion at the end of the latest observation period, which after stripping out the inflow shows an increase of about $1.1 billion, or a gain of 1.9% due to market conditions.

The total inflow for 2012 was $7.77 billion, with positive readings recorded in 42 of the 52 weeks with a weekly average for the year of $149 million. Roughly $1.2 billion, or about 16% of that figure, is tied to ETF inflows (there are now two funds in the sample: the BKLN PowerShares Senior Loan Portfolio and Pyxis iBoxx Senior Loan ETF). – Jon Hemingway