ETFGI, a leading independent research and consultancy firm on trends in the global ETF/ETP ecosystem, reported today that assets invested in Smart Beta equity ETFs/ETPs listed globally have increased 18.3% in the first 8 months of the year, reaching a new record of US$630 Bn at the end of August 2017, according to ETFGI’s August 2017 global smart beta equity ETF and ETP industry insights report, an annual paid for research subscription service. (Click here to see the chart on smart beta asset growth).

Record levels of assets were reached at the end of August for equity smart beta ETFs/ETPs listed globally with US$630.39 Bn, in the United States with US$559.41 Bn, in Europe with US$46.46 Bn, in Canada with US$14.99 Bn and in Asia Pacific (ex-Japan) with US$5.72 Bn.

In August 2017, smart beta equity ETFs/ETPs gathered net inflows of US$3.23 Bn, marking the 18 consecutive month of net inflows and a level of US$48.86 Bn in year to date net inflows which is greater than the US$33.77 Bn in net inflows at this point last year. Combining market moves and net inflows, smart beta equity ETF/ETP assets have increased by 18.3% from US$532.79 Bn to US$630.39 Bn, with a 5-year CAGR of 31.5%.

At the end of August 2017, there were 1,279 smart beta equity ETFs/ETPs, with 2,171 listings, assets of US$630 Bn from 158 providers on 40 exchanges in 33 countries.

“August is typically a challenging month for equity markets with the average loss over the past 20 years for the S&P 500 at 1.3%.This year the S&P 500 was up 0.31% in August and 11.93% year to date, MSCI ACW was up 0.44% and 15.48% YTD while MSCI EM was up 2.27% for August and 28.59% YTD (all prices in USD).Storms and political risks remain a focus for investors - the ability of the Trump administration to move forward on policy goals and hearings on Capitol Hill, Brexit negotiations, and North Korea is still an area of concern.” According to Deborah Fuhr, managing partner at ETFGI.

88.7% of Smart Beta assets are invested in the 631 ETFs/ETPs that are domiciled and listed in the United States and 76.2% of the assets are invested in the 507 ETFs/ETPs that provide Smart Beta exposure to the US market.

iShares gathered the largest ’smart beta’ ETF/ETP net inflows in August with US$1.66 Bn, followed by DeltaShares with US$793 Mn and Vanguard with US$707 Mn net inflows.

Products tracking MSCI ’smart beta’ indices gathered the largest net ETF/ETP inflows in August with US$2.03 Bn, followed by CRSP with US$646 Mn and FTSE Russell with US$367 Mn net inflows.