JP Morgan Leading ETF Race To Zero

Financial giant makes another aggressive move in the ETF space.

A soon-to-launch ETF from J.P. Morgan will put the issuer at the lead in the ETF industry’s race to zero-fee expense ratios.

The JPMorgan BetaBuilders U.S. Equity ETF (BBUS) is scheduled to make its debut on Wednesday, with an expense ratio of just 0.02%, undercutting the handful of funds that charge 0.03%—previously the lowest expense ratio available in the U.S.—for similar exposure.

BBUS will join J.P. Morgan’s BetaBuilders family of ETFs, the first of which rolled out last year and shook things up in the country ETF space. The JPMorgan BetaBuilders Japan ETF (BBJP) charges just 0.19% for plain-vanilla exposure to Japan’s stock market, far less than the 0.47% charged by the iShares MSCI Japan ETF (EWJ).

Cheap Bond ETFs Coming

With assets flowing into the fund from J.P. Morgan’s clients, BBJP is now at $3.5 billion in assets under management (AUM), steadily gaining on the nearly $15 billion in AUM held by EWJ (read “JP Morgan Biggest Buyer Of Its ETFs”).

Also due to launch at the same time is the first bond ETF in the BetaBuilders family, the JPMorgan BetaBuilders 1–5 Year U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF (BBSA), which will track the Bloomberg Barclays Short-Term U.S. Aggregate Bond Index.

BBSA will carry an expense ratio of 0.05%, which puts it solidly among the very cheapest ETFs, and makes it the cheapest short-term ETF, undercutting the Vanguard Short-Term Corporate Bond ETF (VCSH) and the Vanguard Short-Term Bond ETF (BSV), which both charge 0.07%.

Heather Bell can be reached at [email protected]