PRIV Wins Best New U.S. Fixed Income ETF Award
The SPDR SSGA IG Public & Private Credit ETF (PRIV) won the award for Best New U.S. Fixed Income ETF at the 2026 ETF.com Awards, beating out a strong field that included the first true money market ETF, a European-style accumulating bond fund, and a novel TIPS decumulation strategy.
2026 ETF.com Best New U.S. Fixed Income ETF
Fund: SPDR SSGA IG Public & Private Credit ETF (PRIV)
Issuer: State Street
Asset Class: Fixed Income
AUM: $845M
Expense Ratio: 0.55%
PRIV is the first ETF to blend public investment-grade debt with private credit, sourced through a partnership between State Street and Apollo Global Management. The fund is designed to give everyday investors access to a corner of the credit markets that has traditionally been reserved for institutions and high-net-worth clients.
The road to victory (and nearly $1 billion in assets) hasn't been glass-smooth. The fund launched amidst vigorous SEC discussion about everything from how the fund was named to how Apollo provides a liquidity backstop, all of which may have been "cart before the horse" given the fund currently holds just 5% in actual private credit, with the bulk of the portfolio in agency mortgage-backed and other public securities.
Regardless, the innovation is genuine. PRIV represents a structural breakthrough. Many pundits were skeptical that private credit — with its inherent illiquidity and bespoke pricing — could function inside the daily creation-and-redemption mechanics of an ETF. State Street took that risk, and in doing so, opened a door that the rest of the industry is now eyeing with interest.
The challenge for private assets in ETFs will always be there: how do you provide daily liquidity for assets that don't trade daily? PRIV's approach — using public credit as a liquidity buffer while gradually building private credit exposure — is one answer, even if it means the fund has looked more like a traditional bond ETF in the early going.
The runners-up in the U.S. Fixed Income category — TIPD (Northern Trust's inflation-linked decumulation ladder), SBIL (Simplify's 2a-7 compliant money market ETF), CPAG (F/m's accumulating aggregate bond fund), and LQTI (First Trust Vest's target income strategy) — each brought genuine structural innovation to the fixed income space. That PRIV prevailed in this company speaks to how much the industry wants the private credit ETF concept to work.
All data sourced as of 03/06/26.
To see the full list of winners, go here.
