Vanguard to launch municipal bond index ETF

Asset-management giant Vanguard Group Inc. unveiled plans Thursday to launch a new exchange-traded fund in a rare move for one of the industry’s largest players.

The Vanguard Short-Term Tax-Exempt Bond ETF would track an index of municipal bonds with maturities between one month and seven years, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund would charge a fee of seven basis points.

Vanguard intends to launch the ETF, which will be managed by Vanguard Fixed Income Group, in the first quarter of 2023, the firm said in a statement Thursday.

The ETF is intended for investors seeking to generate tax-exempt yield in their portfolios while minimizing interest rate sensitivity. It will predominantly invest in short-term investment grade municipal bonds and will track the S&P 0-7 Year AMT-Free Muni Bond index. The ETF will have an estimated expense ratio of 0.07%, compared to 0.54% for the average short-term bond fund.

While Vanguard is the second-largest issuer in the $6.7 trillion ETF market, the Malvern, Pennsylvania-based company rarely introduces new products to its relatively lean lineup. It controls about $1.9 trillion of assets across 81 ETFs, while industry leader BlackRock Inc.’s $2.2 trillion haul is spread out across 392 funds, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

The planned muni-bond fund would be the first new Vanguard ETF to launch since the debut of the $3 billion Vanguard Ultra Short Bond ETF (VUSB) in April 2021. Muni ETFs have had a banner year in 2022, with investors plowing a record $28.6 billion into the category, Bloomberg data show.

The potential new launch could come just months after Vanguard’s first-ever closure of a U.S. fund. The Vanguard U.S. Liquidity Factor ETF (VFLQ) was liquidated in late November after struggling to lure investors since debuting in 2018.