Assets invested in smart beta exchange-traded funds and exchange-traded products (“ETFs”) listed globally increased by 32.3% in 2017, according to research from ETFGI.

Assets invested in smart beta ETFs reached new highs in 2017, but growth lagged behind plain beta ETFs.

Assets invested in such products were worth $658.4bn as of 2017 year-end, having increased by $160.6bn over the year.

This is almost double the previous growth record of $87.4bn set in 2016.

December 2017 was the twenty-third consecutive month of net inflows into smart beta ETFs, rising $8.5bn in the month alone.

The top 20 smart beta ETFs by net new assets collectively gained $30.9bn over 2017, with the Vanguard Value ETF (VTV US) accounting for $5.1bn.

While the growth in assets under management in smart beta ETFs over the past year was considerable, the genre actually lagged other product segments; market-capitalisation-weighted (or beta) ETFs grew by 40.3% in 2017 and active ETFs by 48.8%.

On a five-year compound annual growth rate, however, smart beta ETFs remain ahead of plain beta ETFs.

Value factor ETFs listed globally saw net inflows of $2.6bn in December alone, growing net inflows for 2017 to $16.7bn. Multi-factor ETFs gathered net inflows of $1.4bn in December, bringing net inflows for 2017 to $12.9bn.

Overall, investors tended to buy lower cost and value factor ETFs.