DWS Slashes Fee on Synthetic Latin America ESG ETF

DWS has cut the fee on its synthetic emerging markets Latin America ESG ETF.

On Oct. 1, the German asset manager will reduce the expense ratio for the $254 million Xtrackers MSCI EM Latin America ESG Swap UCITS ETF (XMLD) to 0.40% from 0.65%.

The decision follows a board meeting on Sept. 20, where DWS decided to more than halve the management fee portion of XMLD’s total expense ratio from 0.45% to 0.20%.

The fee cut signals DWS is looking to make its ETF range more cost competitive after CEO Stefan Hoops said his firm would leapfrog Amundi to become Europe’s second-largest ETF issuer by 2025.

It also coincides with Amundi announcing a series of fee hikes across its range as it overhauls several exchange-traded funds and integrates Lyxor ETFs it has acquired with its own.

Within the past month, the Amundi U.S. Treasury Bond 0-1Y UCITS ETF (PR1T) has seen its fee hiked from 0.05% to 0.07%, the Amundi MSCI USA ESG Leaders UCITS ETF (CU2) fee increased from 0.28% to 0.35%, and the Amundi Leveraged MSCI USA Daily UCITS ETF (CL2) fee was upped from 0.35% to 0.50%.