Though its net sales are down slightly from 2004, Barclays Global Investors' continues to rake in the assets. The sales also helped push the ETF giant into third place on Euromoney/Institutional Investor's list of the 100 largest global investment managers.

Some $44 billion in fresh money flowed into BGI's exchange-traded funds in 2005, Fortune reports. This raises the assets in management in Barclays’ iShares unit to $160 billion.

The new assets it took in this year, however, is slightly less than the $46 billion it attracted in 2004. Nevertheless, the iShares funds remain the third fastest growing fund family in the country, the company said.

Barclays plans to launch a new silver ETF and a commodities ETF that will mirror that Goldman Sachs Commodities Index.

Meanwhile, Euromoney said Tuesday that BGI passed State Street Global Advisors (SSgA)and Fidelity Investments to become the biggest third party asset manager in the world.

According to the latest GI 100 ranking, BGI increased its assets by $250 billion in the 12 months June 2004-05, the biggest increase in the GI 100. 

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