Smart Beta equity ETFs/ETPs listed globally have gathered 53.7 billion US dollars in net new assets in the first 10 months of 2015, according to ETFGI

Smart Beta equity ETFs/ETPs listed globally have gathered 53.7 billion US dollars in net new assets in the first 10 months of 2015, according to ETFGI

London November 25, 2015 Smart Beta equity ETFs/ETPs listed globally gathered US$ 3.0 billion in new assets in October and US$ 53.7 billion in the first 10 months of 2015.   There were 764 smart beta equity ETFs/ETPs, with 1,336 listings, assets of US$399 Bn, from 106 providers listed on 31 exchanges in 27 countries, according to ETFGI’s new report the Global Smart Beta ETF and ETP Insights report for October 2015.

In terms of the factors used by indices in their methodologies which smart beta products track, 401 products with $286.6 Bn track indices which use fundamental factors in their screening process such as dividend yield, earnings per share, revenue or other accounting metrics, while 144 products with $26.7 Bn assets follow indices with multiple types of factors in their screening process which could include fundamental as well as other factors such as volatility, momentum or where the securities are weighted by a measure other than market cap (those which use an 'alternative weighting'). 

Products which are categorised as smart beta based only on the fact that the index uses an alternative weighting methodology have $22.7 Bn assets across 84 products, while those utilising volatility screens such as filtering for securities with low volatility have 63 products and $26.4 Bn assets. There were also 28 products based on momentum strategies with $10.6 Bn assets.

“Our findings show that market cap equity ETFs/ETPs are still the most popular based on asset under management where they accounting for US$ 1.79 trillion compared to US$ 399.3 billion invested in Smart Beta equity ETFs/ETPs.  But when compared on their 5 year CAGR rates Smart Beta equity products are growing significantly faster at 39.3% while market cap has been growing at 18.6.” according to Deborah Fuhr, Managing Partner ETFGI.  

Year to date, 148 new smart beta equity ETFs/ETPs were launched by 48 providers across 33 index providers in 17 countries, while 16 products were delisted from 8 different providers.

iShares gathered the largest 'smart beta' ETF/ETP net inflows in October with US$1.6 Bn, followed by Guggenheim Investments with US$361 Mn and Charles Schwab Investment Management with US$352 Mn net inflows.

YTD, WisdomTree Investments gathered the largest 'smart beta' ETF/ETP net inflows with US$20.0 Bn, followed by iShares with US$13.4 Bn and Vanguard with US$6.4 Bn net inflows.

Products tracking S&P Dow Jones 'smart beta' indices gathered the largest net ETF/ETP inflows in October with US$1.1 Bn, followed by MSCI with US$814 Mn and Cohen & Steers with US$425 Mn net inflows.

YTD, WisdomTree 'smart beta' benchmarked products gathered the largest net ETF/ETP inflows with US$20.0 Bn, followed by MSCI with US$9.4 Bn and CRSP with US$7.3 Bn net inflows.

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