Exchange-traded funds that hold bonds took in record cash globally and in the United States during the first quarter, BlackRock Inc. data showed on Wednesday.

The fixed-income ETFs pulled in $43.7 billion globally as investors turned to the funds for safety from the market rout earlier this year. The ETFs' positive flows have mostly continued in recent weeks as investors moved cash into riskier, but higher-yielding, corporate debt funds.

U.S.-listed bond ETFs took in $31.8 billion during the quarter, according to the data from BlackRock, an ETF manager.

U.S. Treasury ETFs took in assets every week of the year until the end of February as investors fled a selloff in other global markets on concerns about declining oil prices and economic growth, according to Lipper data.

After a rout that lasted through the most of the beginning of the year, corporate-bond ETFs rebounded starting in mid-February as oil prices stabilized, fears of defaults by energy companies abated and central banks in Europe and Japan accelerated monetary-policy efforts to stimulate their economies.