iShares Expanding Bond ETF Offering

Invesco’s recent filing to add a municipal bond branch to its family of target-maturity BulletShares ETFs may have lit a fire under BlackRock’s iShares. The firm has filed to add two more funds to its own lineup of such funds rather than adding them one at a time as it has typically done.

The iShares iBonds Dec 2025 Term Muni Bond ETF and the iShares iBonds Dec 2026 Term Muni Bond ETF, like the rest of the funds in the family, will track indexes covering municipal bonds that mature in their targeted years. Currently, the issuer’s lineup of municipal bond target maturity ETFs includes funds maturing in the years 2018 through 2024.

The seven funds have assets under management of roughly $1.2 billion. The complete iShares family of iBonds target-maturity ETFs includes 21 funds and has a total of $5.7 billion in assets.

Invesco’s BulletShares family covering investment-grade and high-yield corporate debt has been quite successful, with roughly $9 billion spread across 18 funds. The proposed municipal fund additions would cover the years 2019 through 2028.

Contact Heather Bell at [email protected]