Vanguard wrests BlackRock’s spot as manager of world’s biggest bond ETF
Vanguard Group has ushered in a new world order in the fixed-income exchange-traded fund arena. The Vanguard Total Bond Market ETF (BND) , with assets of roughly $83.8 billion, has surpassed the $83.2 billion iShares Core U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF (AGG) to become the world’s biggest bond ETF, Bloomberg data show. Larry Fink’s BlackRock Inc. has long reined as the largest issuer in the $6.6 trillion ETF arena, but Vanguard has been tightening its grip on the industry. Armed with ultra-low fees, the John Bogle-founded giant, which is now the second-biggest U.S. ETF issuer, has increased its market share of industry assets for 20 straight years. That has dramatically narrowed the gap between Vanguard’s $1.86 trillion U.S. ETF assets under management and BlackRock’s $2.2 trillion U.S. ETF business. “A down market is Vanguard’s Briar Patch. This is when their products climb categories the fastest, since asset growth can only come from flows and BND is an inflow machine,” said Eric Balchun...
